Atop Whilton Hill
by Jaida857
Summary: Halloween night. Phineas, Ferb and the rest of the gang decide to sneak into the abandoned mansion atop Whilton Hill. What they find there will not only bring dark secrets to light, but will prove to be the gangs most dangerous adventure yet. Completed!
1. Trick or Treat!

**First things first, disclaimer: I don't own Phineas and Ferb, or any of it characters. I only own my OC's and the plot line. Credit to Dan Povenmire and Jeff "Swampy" Marsh. Rated T for violence and descriptive gore.  
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**So I wrote this a while ago, but it was too early for Halloween, so I waited till now to submit it. The gang is 12, and everything's pretty much gone on the same. This is Halloween night. Enjoy!**

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><p><em>Ding dong.<em>

Phineas Flynn opened up the door with a bowl of candy in his hands, expecting another kid trick-or-treating. What he wasn't expecting was a familiar neighborhood girl whose black hair was twisted in all ways above her head, and whose dress was covered in hundreds of red sparkles. Isabella laughed and held out her bag.

"Trick-or-treat!" she said. Phineas laughed as well and let her inside.

"Does that mean I don't get any candy?" she asked, pretending to be sad. Phineas smiled and walked her into the kitchen, where there were all sorts of goodies laid out on the counters, from cookies to candy apples to giant chocolate balls.

"Wow, you guys really went all out," she remarked. Phineas held out a plate of chocolate cookies to her. She took one and took a bite.

"Mmmm, still warm," she said after swallowing. "Thanks."

"No problem," Phineas replied, taking one for himself and putting the plate back down. "They're for the party later. Candace finally got permission to host a Halloween party, and Ferb and I offered to make the snacks. Everyone should be arriving any time now."

"Well that explains all the decorations," she said, looking around. Lots of people decorate at Halloween, but the Flynn-Fletcher house was completely transformed. Very realistic skeletons were hanging all about, cob webs covered almost every surface, and orange and black tinsel hung from everywhere that it could. The entire house was amazing; inside and out. There must have been at least a hundred pumpkins throughout the entire property, all carved with the most intricate designs.

"Where is everyone?" Isabella asked, glancing around.

"Candace is upstairs with Stacy getting ready for the party," said Phineas, "my parents are out hosting a Halloween themed antique auction, and Ferb is waiting with everyone else at the mansion."

At the mention of the mansion, Isabella got very nervous.

"Is that where we're going?" she asked nervously. There was only one place that Phineas could be referring to. The old abandoned mansion atop Whilton Hill. There were rumours of kids disappearing when they snuck onto the property, and of strange noises coming from the house at night.

About a hundred years ago, an old couple had lived there, and then one day a mysterious fire had started and ruined the entire house. The couple was perfectly fine, and they had the house completely fixed, but then they vanished, leaving no heir to the property. After a vigorous investigation, for some strange reason, the house was left alone, declared private property. Or so they say. No one knows for sure what really happened to the house. Kids sneak into it sometimes, but whenever they do, they never come back. Isabella knew this, because about a year ago, a kid in their class, Tommy Canton, had told everyone that he was going to go into the house that night and find out what the big deal was.

He never showed up for school the next day. And then the police came, asking for any information anyone had about the missing boy. They told them Whilton Mansion. But he never turned up. The trail was left cold and Tommy was never found. No one talked about him much; it was a very touchy subject. The adults gave no information, scolding kids whenever they suggested it was because the house was haunted. But all the kids knew about the house. They had all heard the stories, and knew that they had to be true. No one dared go in to the house to look for Tommy; they were all too scared for their lives.

"Don't worry Isabella, there's nothing to be afraid of," soothed Phineas. But Isabella was not convinced.

"What about Tommy?"

Phineas' expression darkened. Tommy had been a good friend, and he always acted like that when the missing boy was brought up.

"I'm sorry Phineas," apologized Isabella. Phineas shook his head.

"Don't be. It was over a year ago." He forced a small smile onto his face.

"So why are we going to the Whilton Mansion?" she asked, taking the topic of the conversation off of Tommy.

"Well, we just want to see what's really there," he explained. "Everyone is always freaking out about it, and we want to find out the truth. Besides, there will be a bunch of us going in together."

Isabella bit her bottom lip nervously. Of course she loved adventure, but this was a bit much. It wasn't just some game this time, it could be dangerous. Phineas saw how nervous she was and took her hand, smiling at her.

"Don't worry," he said. "I'll be right there the whole time."

She blushed, and after a second she nodded.

"Alright, I'll go."

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><p>About twenty minutes later, Phineas and Isabella arrived just outside the mansion's property to find no one around.<p>

"That's strange," said Phineas, looking around for their friends. "Ferb said they were going to wait for us here."

Suddenly, three dark shapes jumped out of the bushes and tackled Phineas to the ground. Isabella screamed, and then she found herself extremely annoyed to find Buford, Django, and Ferb, all holding Phineas down and laughing their heads off. Phineas let out a nervous laugh when he realized it was just his friends, but Isabella wasn't satisfied.

"That wasn't funny you guys!" she exclaimed, pushing them off Phineas and helping him to his feet. The three of them stood up, still laughing, and then Baljeet and Irving walked out from behind the bushes as well, shaking their heads.

"Let me just say that I was totally opposed to this," said Baljeet. Irving nodded his agreement.

"No big deal. So, are we ready to go in?" asked Phineas. Isabella took a moment to check out her friends outfits. None of them were trick-or-treating this year, but they were all in partial costumes, such as herself. Ferb had on a long red and black cape, with a high collar. Baljeet was wearing a lab coat and his hair was spiked upwards. Buford was simpler, in a leather jacket complete with chains hanging down from pockets. Django was dressed like an artist, such as he was, with paint splattered clothes and a set of brushes hanging from his belt. Irving was… dressed as Phineas (not creepy at all). Phineas was wearing a top hat and dress coat, and had skeleton gloves on his hands. Isabella was dressed in a knee length dark red dress with tons of sparkles, and her hair was twisted up high on her head.

"Yeah, I think so," answered Django. Everyone else nodded, so Ferb walked over to the old gate and pushed it open. It creaked loudly, and then hit the stone wall with a crash. Isabella winced at the sound, gazing over the mansion in fear.

It was four stories high, with a tall pointed tower coming out of the west wing. The entire property was huge, with dead trees all over. A short, crumbled stone wall surrounded the property, and the only opening was the rusty metal gate. It had a lock on it, but a bunch of kids had broken it a while ago, intending to sneak in, but they were busted by the police before they could. The house itself was impressive, although the sight of it scared Isabella stiff. The windows were mostly broken, and vines were creeping their way up the walls. The house was a faded grayish brown colour, but the paint was peeling off. A large front porch was house to a porch swing that was hanging low to one side, broken for years. Empty pots lie about as well, and an old rocking chair sat near the edge, one of its arm-rests missing. The wind blew around them, making the wind-chimes move slightly and make an eerie sound.

"I don't know about this you guys," said Isabella, feeling more scared now that they were actually there. "What if something bad happens?"

Buford mumbled something about girls, but Django punched him lightly in the shoulder to get him to be quiet. Usually, Isabella was the only girl there, so they all treated her with respect. She liked hanging out with only boys. After that summer when they built all those crazy inventions, she had stopped wearing as much pink, and lost her love of unicorns and rainbows and things like that. She got more into sports, sometimes being allowed to play on the boys teams because of her skill, which made her very popular among the other guys. Although she was still friends with her old Fireside Girls troop, she mostly hung out with the six she was now with.

"Trust me Isabella," said Phineas, taking her hand once again to reassure her. "There's nothing to be afraid of. We brought a flashlight, and we'll stay together the whole time. And if something does go wrong, we'll get the heck out of there."

Isabella took a deep breathe to calm herself down. She glanced at the old house once again, and then slowly nodded.

"Let's do it."

The seven of them approached the front porch. Buford, being as stubborn as he always was, was the first to step onto it, walking right up to the door. The rest of them came up more slowly, glancing around and checking things out. Phineas still held Isabella's hand, which helped her to stay calm in the situation. Buford stepped aside as Phineas walked up to the door, and carefully placed his other hand on the knob. He looked back to see Ferb holding the flashlight. His step-brother nodded, and so the young red-head took a deep breathe, and slowly turned his hand. The door opened, and he took the first step inside.

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><p><strong>So, did you like the intro? This started as a one-shot, and then I kept getting ideas, and it turned into this! Okay, just a few things I'd like to say first.<strong>

**One, there will be people getting killed. Of course I'm not going to tell you who, but I'm just warning you now, it's possible that your favourite character will die sometime. So please don't be too pissed off at me. Second, there is some Phinabella, but it's not the main focus of the story. That's the only pairing. Third, it's rated T for now, but I may need to change the rating later on to M, because of descriptive gore. If you think I should change it, just tell me, and I will. And fourth, because of the afore mentioned deaths, do not flame me when it happens, cause it will. If you don't like stories where people die, then leave now. Because you will be severely pissed at yours truly when I kill someone you like.**

**Yeah, I think that's it. See ya!**


	2. No Way Out

**Thanks to the first reviewers! Just to let you know, I'm planning on having the last chapter submitted on Halloween, so the story will go on until then.**

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><p>The first thing Phineas noticed was how incredibly dark it was. Not like regular house-with-the-lights-off dark, but with all the broken windows, there should have been at least some light from the moon. From what the young red head could see, there was a large, empty space in front of them. There was a staircase leading up either side of the room to the second floor. The railings were cracked on both sides, rendering them useless. Phineas thought he could see a few doors off to either side, but he couldn't be sure. There was definitely a large double door directly across from the main entrance. Above that there was a small balcony on the second floor, overlooking the area below. The stairs went up to it, and then two hallways spilt off to either side of the balcony. A large chandelier hung from the two story ceiling, much of its glass broken and lying around on the floor. The other two floors were completely separate from the bottom two.<p>

Phineas took a few tentative steps in, Isabella following closely, still clutching his hand. They stopped a little ways in, letting their eyes adjust to the dim setting. The others came in behind them, cautious as they should be. Ferb turned the flashlight on and shone it around, letting everyone see the setting. There were indeed several doors going off to separate wings of the house; four or five on each side. There were a few paintings hanging crookedly on the walls, depicting serious looking old people. A pile of shattered glass lay in front of them on the floor, most likely from the broken chandelier above.

Buford, trying to act brave, walked ahead of everyone, stepping around the glass and standing in the middle of the huge area. The others stayed back behind Phineas, who was still standing looking around.

"This doesn't look so bad," said Buford, crossing his arms and turning back to them. "What's everyone so worked up about?"

"Well, this is only the main entrance," suggested Irving. "Perhaps there's more if we look around a bit."

"Yeah, this house is huge," agreed Phineas. "There's got to be something more interesting around here."

"If by interesting you mean mortally terrifying, then I agree," said Baljeet, peeking out from behind everyone and getting a better look around.

Isabella gazed fearfully around, not liking it at all, but she wasn't about to run out of there screaming, much as she wanted to. She wouldn't just leave her friends to do this alone. It was all of them or none of them.

"Where should we start?" asked Phineas. They could either go to one of the other wings, through the double doors ahead, or they could go up. Either way they had no idea what they were going to find.

"Why don't we stick on this floor for now?" suggested Django, stepping forward and looking from side to side. "Then we'll go up once we've checked it out down here."

"Sounds good," replied Phineas. He looked around briefly, and then starting walking to the right, towards the many doors on that side. He picked one at random and went to open it. But as soon as his fingertips touched the handle, they all heard a loud slam, and when they turned back to the front door, it was closed. Isabella gasped and Django ran towards the door, trying as hard as he could to get it open, but to no avail.

"It's stuck," he told them after a minute of pulling and pushing.

"What do you mean it's stuck?" asked Baljeet, his voice cracking.

"I think it means _we're _stuck," Ferb elaborated, pointing his flashlight to the front door.

"So that means we have to find another way out," said Isabella, her hand squeezing Phineas' in fear.

"Looks like it," said Phineas. He turned back to the door he had been about to open, and placed his hand on on the cool metal handle.

Suddenly, there was a loud crack of thunder, and even Buford cowered. Then they heard another sound, coming from upstairs. It was a low, quiet laugh, and then it was gone.

"Phineas, I don't like this," whispered Isabella, taking a step closer to him.

"We can't get out through the front, we need to keep moving," he said, although he was becoming rather scared himself. He turned the handle and pushed.

The door opened, creaking loudly. A small breeze came through the opening. Phineas took a careful step forward, peering around in the darkness. The room resembled a dining room, with a large wooden table in the middle, and eight chairs seated around. An empty vase sat on the table, and there were a few bent forks and knifes. Cupboards lined the right side of the room, some open, some without a door at all. There were broken dishes inside, and a long counter stretched along the entire right side of the room to the end. A small sink sat in the middle, with a moldy dishrag lying next to it. Along the left side, there wasn't much, except an open door leading into an empty broom closet, and a small bookshelf with a dozen dusty old books on its shelves.

"Nothing too exciting in here," announced Phineas, walking into the room and checking it out. The others followed, Ferb right behind Isabella with the flashlight. Django walked over to check out the closet, Irving and Baljeet looked around in the cupboards, and Buford sat down on one of the unbroken chairs at the table, putting his feet up. Phineas looked to the other side of the room and saw another door, the only other way out of the room besides where they had just come from.

"Let's see what's through that door," he said. He and Isabella walked through the room over to it, avoiding anything potentially dangerous, like the broken chair with long nails sticking out of it. When Phineas was about to reach the door, suddenly the ground shot out from under him and he started falling. He let out a cry and would have fallen if Isabella hadn't still been holding onto his hand.

"Phineas!" she called, grasping his hand tightly. The floorboards had simply fallen out underneath his weight, making a hole large enough for someone to fall through. Below, there was only black. When everyone else saw what happened they rushed over to help. Isabella pulled up and the others helped to get Phineas onto solid ground. He managed to get up without any injuries, other than a sore arm now from being hauled up.

"I'm fine guys," he assured them, peering into the hole.

"I didn't know this place had a basement," he remarked.

"It doesn't," said Ferb. This made everyone extremely nervous.

"Okay, that's it, we need to get out of here fast," said Django. Everyone nodded their agreement.

"Let's find another door," said Isabella, helping Phineas to his feet. The seven kids carefully walked back out of the dining room. Ferb went to quickly check the front door again, finding it still locked.

"We'll try the other side," decided Phineas, walking over to the other set of doors. He picked another random door and was about to open it when suddenly there was a loud crash from upstairs.

"What was that?" asked a panicked Baljeet, clearly shaking.

"I don't know," answered Phineas, looking up at the roof where the sound had come from. "I think there's someone else in here."

"What?" Irving exclaimed, looking around wildly. "Who else would be crazy enough to come in here?"

"I don't know," Phineas said again. He tried the doorknob, but found he couldn't open it.

"Hmm, I think it's locked," he told everyone. He shoved on the door, and was about to give up when there was another crash, this time sounding closer. Isabella moved right up to Phineas, Ferb shone the flashlight towards the stairs, and the others mostly cowered behind them, save for Buford, who pretended to be unaffected.

"I think it would be in our best interests to vacate as quickly as possible," advised Baljeet.

"But we can't get out," Isabella reminded him. "Not unless we find another door."

"We could always try the window," suggested Buford. Everyone turned to look at him, and he suddenly got all defensive.

"What, you got a problem with that?" he demanded.

"Not at all Buford," Phineas said, smiling. "That's a great idea."

"But there's glass everywhere," Django reminded him, gesturing towards the windows. They were all partially broken, but the glass was still very sharp. You couldn't get out without getting cut.

"It's the only way out," insisted Phineas. He quickly looked around and saw a small box near the bottom of the stairs on the left. Ferb helped him carry it over to just below the window with the least amount of glass. Phineas stood up on the box, making sure everything looked fine.

"Alright, we can just climb right out," he said. "Isabella, you go first."

Isabella took a step towards him, but the minute she did, a sudden blast of wind shot through the window, knocking Phineas down. The others were blown off their feet, and Ferb dropped his flashlight. There was another even louder crash and the sound of someone screaming. The scream was cut off suddenly, and when everyone came to their senses. The room was dark again.

"Is everyone alright?" Phineas asked. He heard a few mumbles, and crawled around carefully, looking for someone. His hand touched skin and he heard Isabella's voice.

"Hey Phineas," she said. Their eyes finally adjusted, and he looked around, seeing his friends slowly standing up. The flashlight was gone, no where to be seen. Phineas helped Isabella up, and then she gasped, a hand flying to her mouth.

"What's wrong?" asked Phineas. Isabella looked at him, a panicked look on her face.

"Django," she said. Phineas looked all around the entire room, and felt himself stop breathing for a minute.

Django was no where to be seen.


	3. Explorations

**Well, I watched the Halloween special shortly after updating the last chapter. Please pay no attention to any similarities in it and my story, because I started and wrote most of this story before it was premiered. So yeah, this has nothing to do with the special at all. **

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><p>"Oh god, where is he?"<p>

Django was gone. Just, gone. He could have gone somewhere else, but why would he have gone off by himself? They had agreed to stick together. That meant that something had happened to him. There had been a scream, but it had sounded like it was coming from higher in the house. The flashlight was missing as well, making it harder to look around. Without leaving the main room, they were looking for him, but it only took a minute to realize that he wasn't there.

"Maybe he got out," suggested Irving.

"But why wouldn't he have come back for us?" Phineas asked. No answer.

"Maybe he went into a different room?" Baljeet said.

"Yes, but why would he just leave us suddenly?" No answer again. Then Isabella voiced what no one else wanted to say.

"What if something got him?"

Everyone fell silent. There was very obviously something else in the house; whether not it was a person was unsure at the moment. And whether or not it was dangerous- the answer was most likely yes.

"Okay let's see," started Phineas, pacing back and forth across the room, avoiding the glass. "The door locks us in, we hear noises, I almost fall into a non-existent basement, we try to escape through the window, but there's a sudden strong blast of wind that pushes us back. We hear a crash, a scream, and now Django is gone."

None of it made any sense.

"The important thing right now is to stay calm," said Phineas, stopping in front of everyone, who had gathered near the door. "If we start panicking then we'll never find Django and get out."

"So we're going to keep looking?" asked Baljeet. Phineas nodded.

"There's not much else we can do at this point."

"Who put Dinnerbell in charge?" demanded Buford, crossing his arms and frowning. Isabella gave him a little shove.

"What?" he asked, rubbing his arm, as Isabella was quite strong.

"Just ignore him Phineas," she said. Phineas smiled at her in appreciation. He saw everyone else nodding, showing that they agreed with her.

"Alright, we can either look around down here, or go upstairs," he said. "Down here, we now know that the floor is very unstable. But upstairs was where the noises were coming from. I say we go investigate. It seems like the best way to find Django."

Phineas turned around and started walking towards the staircase on the right, the others following.

"Aren't you supposed to go _away _from the strange noises?" mumbled Irving, but he still followed. The kids made their way carefully up the stairs, avoiding any holes in the steps and staying clear of the broken railings. When they were about halfway up, a step cracked underneath Ferb and he had just enough time to move out of the way before the wood gave way and fell into the darkness below. There was no sound of the wood hitting anything, showing that there was again nothing underneath them.

Everyone was careful as they got to the next floor and made their way onto the balcony that overlooked the main foyer.

"Why did we even have to come in here in the first place?" Baljeet asked nervously.

"I agree, this was kind of stupid," agreed Irving. Everyone else nodded.

"We were just being overly curious," said Phineas. "And now we know that if we ever get out of here, we never come back again."

He took a step into the hallway, glancing left and right, as if trying to decide which way to go.

"Alright, if we go left, the hallway goes on for longer, and if we go right, it turns almost right away," he told them.

"If we stay straight we have less a chance of getting lost," Ferb pointed out.

"Then let's go left," Phineas decided. The two step brothers led the way, everyone else following nervously. Well, Buford was of course trying to look brave, but anyone could tell that he was scared stiff as well. Isabella walked directly behind Phineas, reaching forward and taking his hand again. They six kids walked slowly down dim hallway until they reached the first door. It looked brand new, and the sliver handle was shining, as if someone had recently polished it. Phineas carefully reached forward and took the handle. This time, there was no sudden crash or scream or flash of light. He twisted the handle and opened the door.

The room didn't have much; a small rickety table in the left corner, and an open closet with only a broom inside. Dust covered every surface, making the kids cough. There was a boarded up window on the far side, which they now knew better than to try to open. Other than that, there was nothing else in the room. Everyone came in, leaving the door slightly ajar.

"There's nothing in here," declared Phineas. "Let's move on."

Isabella was the first to reach the door. When she opened it and glanced out into the hallway, and gasped and turned back to the boys.

"I think you guys should see this," she said, stepping aside so the others could see. Phineas went out into the hallway, the others following, and he couldn't believe his eyes. Looking to his right, the direction they had come from, there was no balcony, only a long dark hallway.

"What the- we're not in the same place!" he exclaimed. When everyone else stepped out into the hallway and looked around, panic started setting in again.

"There was only one door in the room" said Irving. "And we went back out it. So how can we be in a different place?"

"It's like the room moved while we were in it," Buford said.

"Now we don't even know where we are," said Ferb, taking a step down the hallway. "We could be anywhere in the house."

"But we didn't move!" exclaimed Baljeet.

"Apparently we did," Isabella argued. The math whiz shook his head, not sure what to say of their situation.

"We need to keep moving," Phineas said to everyone when they had stopped talking. "It doesn't matter what just happened, we need to find Django and get out of here."

"Agreed," said Ferb. The young green-haired boy led the way left down the hallway. There were no doors for a while, so they walked in silence, glancing around nervously in the darkness. How they could see when there was no light source anywhere near, they didn't know, but apparently they could just barely see what was around them.

Before they reached the next door, Ferb stopped suddenly, inhaling a sharp breathe. He stepped aside so everyone else could see the horrific sight in front of them. Phineas and Isabella took a step forward. The red-head's breathe caught in his throat and his hands started shaking. Isabella gasped and turned her head away, unable to look at what was in front of them.

It was Tommy, and he was dead. And whatever had done it had not been light on the theatrics.

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><p><strong>Yeah, kind of a filler chapter. I know this one was a bit short (and possibly boring other than the end) but I wanted to end it with that. You can expect me to end most chapters with a cliff-hanger such as that one. What did you think?<strong>


	4. Discoveries

**The chapters will get longer from here, don't worry. I think the last one was the shortest, this one second shortest. Also, this next scene is one of the most graphic there's going to be. In my opinion, it isn't _too_ bad, but just a warning.**

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><p>Tommy was mauled almost beyond recognition. He was completely covered in blood, and he lay in a pool of dark red. His shirt was torn, with multiple slash marks in his stomach and chest. His face was worse; one eye was completely gone and there was a large slash wound going through the empty socket. His face still held a look of terror on it. His right arm was cut off at the elbow, and the other was bent in a very unnatural way. The most disturbing thing though, had to be that most of his insides were no longer inside.<p>

Isabella couldn't stop the tears from sliding down her cheeks. Even if she hadn't known the boy as well as her friends, it was horrible what had happened to him. She still refused to look. Phineas squeezed her hand and found that he couldn't take his eyes of his dead friend. It was one of those things that you didn't want to look at, but found yourself unable to look away. Baljeet backed slowly away behind the others, Irving looked on the verge of throwing up, and Buford was visibly pale, and looked almost at breaking point. Ferb forced himself to take a deep breathe, and then knelt down to examine Tommy.

Phineas didn't know how his brother could possibly keep his cool while looking over their friend, but the green-haired boy managed to do a full examination to try to figure out what the ultimate cause of death had been.

"These wounds are fresh," he mumbled.

"What was that?" asked Phineas. Ferb stood up and wiped the blood off of his hands.

"I said the wounds are fresh," he repeated. "Most of them anyways. Those slash marks on his chest were made within the last hour, and they were what caused him to die."

"But he went missing a year ago," said Phineas. "How could he have stayed alive in here for that long?"

"I don't know," answered his step-brother. "But somehow he managed to stay alive until today."

"Can we get out of here?" Isabella asked quietly. Phineas was about to agree when he noticed something.

"There's a note underneath him," he said. Ferb knelt down again and pulled a bloody piece of paper out from underneath Tommy. It was barely readable, but he managed to decipher it and read it aloud.

"_Dear whoever finds this,_

_If there's anyone else in here to read this, I'm sorry that you were unlucky enough to wander inside. I hope you didn't come in looking for me. Anyways, I don't have much time to write, because it could come back at any second. I've been in here long enough to know the secrets. To get out, you must wait until midnight. At midnight, the door will open for two minutes. The front door only. If you try to get out any other way, it will stop you, and it might kill you. But it will try to stop you from leaving. It doesn't want you to escape. It wants to kill you. If you don't know what it is, it's a monster. Like something right out of a horror movie. It's probably what caused the fire a hundred years ago. If you can find the front door by midnight, it will come, and it will try to kill you. There is only one way to defeat it. You need light. It's dark in here because it needs dark to survive. The only light you will find is whatever you brought with you. If you have a flashlight, keep it close. If you see it, shine the light on it and run. That's the only way. You can't fight it, you can only get away. Find light, and at midnight, find the front door. Shine the light on it and run. Never come back. If you get out the front door, it can't hurt you. I don't think it can leave. _

_You may have noticed that the rooms move. This is so that you can't find the front door. If you do manage to find the door, don't let it out of your sight. That's the only way to keep yourself from moving. If you've already moved, then all you can do is keep walking until you find the door. DO NOT try to get out any other way, or you will die. Good luck._

_Tommy."_

Ferb finished reading the note and everyone paused to think about it. If what Tommy said was true, they were screwed. They had lost the flashlight, and they had lost the door.

"How can there be a monster?" asked Baljeet. Phineas shook his head helplessly.

"I just don't know," he said. "But Tommy wouldn't lie about something like this. That means that what he said is true. We need to find Django quickly, and then find the door and get out."

"We don't even know where we are though," said Isabella.

"Then we just keep walking. We'll find it eventually."

Ferb put the note in his pocket and stepped carefully around Tommy. The other followed, leaving the dead body lying there. Isabella was sure that she would have thrown up by now if it hadn't been for Phineas' hand still in hers. She took deep breaths, forcing herself not to look back.

The kids continued walking, shaken by what they had just witnessed, but even more determined to escape. The next door they came to looked older than the last one, with a rusty handle. Ferb reached to open it, and it stuck for a moment. He pushed against the wood and it opened. This room had more in it then the last one; several chairs placed randomly around, a desk with stack of paper, and a couple shelves with a few old books. An open window was on the far side, much like the last one, except this one was not boarded up, and there was no glass in it whatsoever. Phineas walked carefully towards it, being careful not to get too close while still getting a good look outside.

"I think we're still on the second floor," he told everyone. "We're facing the back lawn."

The lawn was simply a huge field with dead grass and the occasional bush. Phineas backed away from the window and looked around the room. He noticed the blood stains on the walls, some looking distinctly like hand prints.

"Tommy must have been in here," he said softly, his mind going back to his friend. He shook his head to clear it and watched his friends. Ferb and Irving were going through the papers on the desk, looking for any that weren't blank. Buford was sitting in one of the chairs, leaning back with his eyes closed, trying to look bored. Baljeet stood nervously by the door, making sure that it stayed open. Isabella stayed next to Phineas, and he felt her hand shaking slightly.

"You okay?" he asked, knowing perfectly way that she couldn't be after what had happened. To confirm that fact she shook her head, not meeting his eyes yet.

"We're going to get out of here," he told her, trying to comfort her.

"How do you know that?" she asked him quietly, looking up and meeting his eyes. Phineas looked back at her, seeing that she was more terrified than she was showing on the outside.

"I know that because I'm not going to let what happened to Tommy happen to anyone else," he said. "No matter what it takes, I'm going to get you out of here. I'm going to get us all out."

Isabella tried to take comfort from his words. She knew that he would do all that he could to save them. But even though she believed in him, it still seemed impossible. Still, she didn't say so, instead just nodding slightly.

"Thanks," she whispered. Phineas gave her a small smile.

Everyone met in the middle of the room, going over what they would do now.

"We couldn't find anything useful in here," said Ferb. "We should just keep moving."

"If we keep going, we should eventually find the door," Baljeet added.

"Then let's go," said Phineas. He and Isabella led the way back to the door. When they stepped outside, it seemed as if they hadn't moved, although there was no way to tell. They started down the hall in the same direction they had been going for, on the lookout for doors, or anything else for that matter.

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><p><strong>Okay, not much of a cliff-hanger here. Whatever. Next chapter is when the REAL action starts.<br>**


	5. This is True Terror

**Yeah, I know the beginning of the last chapter was a little much for some people xD Whatever, I'm pretty sure that's the worse there's going to be. Now, prepare for the first taste of REAL action, coming up right now!**

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><p>Twenty minutes later, and they had made no progress at all. They had found three other rooms in the seemingly endless hallway, all either containing nothing, or useless items such as more chairs or tables. When they exited the third room, they found that for the second time, they had somehow moved.<p>

"This whole thing makes no sense," said Isabella, having calmed down a bit since the encounter with Tommy. "I know that I'm not usually one to say this, but all these things that are happening are impossible. A monster, and moving rooms, and a house that seems to want us dead?"

"I know it's impossible," agreed Phineas. "But no matter how impossible it is, it's happening."

The young girl sighed and leaned against the wall where they had stopped.

"I just wish we had thought about this more instead of wandering into an abandoned house where a year ago our friend went missing inside."

Everyone agreed. It had been stupid and reckless, and now they were paying for it. But they all knew that no matter how much of a bad idea it had been, they had to deal with it now, and focus on getting out alive.

"Let's not think about that; let's just focus on finding a way out," said Phineas. Isabella nodded and straightened up. Phineas reached out his hand to her, and she took it gratefully. The six kids then continued on down the dark hallway.

It didn't take long for them to come across something that could be helpful. The hallway ended, and instead of simply leading to another door, there was a narrow staircase spiraling downwards. The stairs looked as if they were in perfect shape, unlike the ones near the entrance.

"I guess we're heading down," said Baljeet, peering around the others to get a better look. Phineas and Isabella led the way, although Isabella had to walk behind, as the stairway only allowed one person at a time. The stairs creaked slightly under the weight, but they held up.

The stairway went on for way too long. Even if they somehow ended up on the fourth floor, there was no way that the climb down would take that long. There were no doorways or landings or anything except the stairs. It was five minutes of going down before anything happened.

It started with a bang. There was a loud, sudden bang, which sounded like it was coming from down the stairway. It startled the group, making them pause in their decent. For a few second, nothing happened, and then it sounded again, only this time, like it was closer. Irving, who was in the back, started nervously backing up, the others following. Then another bang, and another, both much louder. By the fifth bang, the kids turned around and started running up the steps.

It was impossible, but within seconds, they reached a doorway. The stairs just stopped and a single door stood waiting at the top. Irving, who was in the front, instantly tried to get the handle open, but it stuck, and it wouldn't budge. Phineas, Ferb, and Isabella all ran up to help him, and together, the four of them managed to force the door open. They tumbled through and found themselves in yet another hallway.

"Everyone okay?" asked Phineas, slightly out of breath. He heard three replies, and when he turned around, he was once again shocked and scared.

"Darn it," he mumbled. The other three turned around as well, to see that Buford and Baljeet were nowhere to be seen. Not only that, the doorway was gone, and instead the hallway stretched out into darkness.

"Weren't they right behind us?" questioned Isabella, standing up and dusting herself off. Ferb and Irving stood up as well, all four of them looking around, but there was nothing to see. They were gone.

"It happened again," said Ferb, shaking his head slightly. "But this time we weren't trying to leave, we were just backtracking."

"I don't think it matters," Phineas said, leaning back against the wall. Isabella went to stand next to him, and she put her head in her hands.

"This cannot be happening," she whispered to herself. "I swear this is all a bad dream."

"I wish," said Phineas, having heard her comment. "But it's obvious that this is all too real."

Isabella was about to reply, when she was silenced by a sound the reverberated through the entire house. It started as a dull throbbing sound, and turned into an ear shattering roar. They group had to cover their ears it was so loud. It was much like a lions roar, mixed in with something that sounded vaguely human. It cut off suddenly, and in an unspoken agreement, everyone began running.

They didn't know where they were going; they only knew that they had to escape. But the problem was they didn't know what they were escaping from, or even where it was. For all they knew, they could be running right towards it. Still, they kept running. They ran down the hallway, and when it ended, they found the nearest room and went inside, closing the door behind them. Inside was nothing but a broken chair. When they opened the door again, they had moved, but this time there wasn't just another hallway.

The door opened into a huge ballroom, or something that looked like one. It was completely empty, save for a few areas of broken glass, and the stage on the far side. There were no windows, and two small landings overlooked it from a higher floor. The ceiling was at least three stories high, and the room looked like it had to take up an entire floor. Which they all knew, wasn't possible, but they were getting used to it by now. The only other way out of the room were the huge double doors at the end.

"Well, this is new," remarked Isabella, glad to stop running finally.

"Why don't we rest here for a bit, and they see what's through those doors," decided Phineas. The others nodded, and Isabella sat herself down on the floor, crossing her legs and looking up at the ceiling far above. Ferb went to look around the room some more, Irving wandered aimlessly around, and Phineas sat down next to Isabella.

"You're staying awfully calm," she said to him, still looking at the ceiling. The young inventor shrugged.

"I need to be, otherwise I won't be able to think straight, and we'll never get out of here."

"I don't think we're getting out anyways," she said softly. She didn't look scared this time, she just looked sad.

"Didn't I tell you that I'd get us out?" Phineas reminded her. Isabella nodded slowly, still not looking at him.

"I know you did, and I trust you. But it's pretty unlikely that we'll find the front door anytime soon."

Phineas knew it was true. They hadn't even been here two hours, and already three of them were gone. But if he gave up, then that would just make everyone else give up hope completely.

"You know, I-"

Phineas was cut off when there was a loud crash from behind them. They two kids bolted upright and turned around, not believing their eyes.

It was hard to see in the darkness, but there was… _something, _in front of them. Something that defied logic. It was a huge, dark shape, at least ten feet tall, with half a dozen long tentacles whipping through the air. It looked as though it had two gigantic arms, with three wicked sharp claws on each. It didn't appear to have any kind of legs; it was just a large black mass with arms and tentacles. Or at least, that was what it looked like.

Phineas and Isabella started slowly backing away, trying not to freeze in terror. It didn't move, other than its tentacles, and it didn't appear as if it saw them, whatever _it _was. One thing was clear though; it was the monster that Tommy had been talking about in his letter. The two of them continued to back up, until the floor creaked underneath Phineas' foot, and _it _moved.

It looked like it was slithering forward, seeing as it had a lack of visible legs. It moved slowly at first, and then sped up and they continued to walk backwards away from it. It made no sound, and that made it even more terrifying.

"Run," whispered Phineas, and the two of them turned around and started sprinting for the double doors. Irving was just running through them, and Ferb was waiting there holding the doors open, his eyes filled with terror. He looked like he wanted to run, but he would never leave his friends.

Halfway to the door, _it _shot out one of its long, slimy tentacles. It shot across the floor, headed straight for Phineas. Isabella heard it moving, and pushed him aside just in time. Phineas fell to the floor out of reach, and Isabella was tripped by the tentacle. Phineas stood up and tried to run to her, but he couldn't get there in time. As Isabella struggled to get up, she felt the claws slice across her back. She cried out in pain, and knew that there would be no time to run, because it was already upon her. But Phineas was faster this time, and he slid across the hard, slippery floor. He got to Isabella just in time to push her out of the way, and they both safely got out of the path of the large tentacle that slammed into the floor where the young girl had been just moments before. Wasting no time, Phineas grabbed Isabella's hand and the two of them ran for their lives to the doors. The second they got through, Ferb slammed them closed behind them. Phineas and Isabella fell to the floor, thoroughly exhausted, and Ferb put his ear to the doors, listening for any sound. Hearing nothing, he opened the doors just a crack, peering through, and then closed them again.

"The ballroom is gone," he informed them. Phineas stood up, rolling his shoulders to get the kinks out, when he heard a quiet whimpering sound. He looked down to see Isabella on her knees, letting out short hisses of pain through her clenched teeth. To his horror, Phineas saw the three large parallel claws marks running down her back, blood spilling out of each one.

"Oh god Isabella," he exclaimed, kneeling down next to her. He instantly pulled his jacket off and ripped it in half. He took half of it and pressed it gently but firmly to her wounds. Isabella gasped in pain, but remained still and let Phineas help her. Having to use his teeth this time, he took the other half of his jacket and ripped it into long strips.

"Try to hold that on," he told Isabella. She reached her hands behind her, holding the ripped jacket there as best she could while Phineas took the rest of it and tied it up so that it formed a bandage suitable for dressing her wounds.

"Alright, take it off for a second," he told her. Isabella let the fabric fall to the floor, and Phineas quickly took his cloth and wrapped it around her in a way that it covered the claws marks, tying it off behind her. It wasn't ideal, but it was all they had.

"That'll have to do," he said. He stood up, helping her to stand up as well. Isabella squeezed her eyes shut and leaned against Phineas for support. The claw marks still burned like hell, but she knew that was as good as it was going to get.

"You okay?" Phineas asked in concern, allowing her to lean against him. She opened her eyes and managed a weak smile.

"Never better," she answered, although it was very far from the truth, and they both knew it. Phineas helped her to the nearest wall and let her sit down leaning against it, and took a few seconds to survey their surroundings.

The room looked very much like the main foyer, only there was no front door, only similar doors on the sides of the room. It was smaller, with no chandelier, and there was only a single window opposite the double doors, boarded up. For some reason, there was a ton of broken glass littering the floor, except there didn't seem to be anything that it could have come from. But that wasn't all that strange considering what they had just seen. Phineas sighed and went to sit down next to Isabella. She smiled weakly at his company, closing her eyes and leaning her head back against the wall.

Ferb stood in the middle of the room, turning around slowly as if to catalog everything. Irving was trying to see up the stairs without getting too close, in fear of actually seeing something. Phineas was watching Isabella, making sure that she was okay after what had just happened. She felt his gaze on her and tried to focus on that instead of the pain, which was very insistent at holding her attention. Trying to ignore the burning pain in her back, she instead let her mind wander, but it kept coming back to that dark shape that had nearly killed her.

She would remember that shape for the rest of her life.

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><p><strong>Alright, now here's some action! I bet you're all wondering where the heck Buford and Baljeet went? Don't worry; I'll get to that in the next chapter. Also, just to let you know, that monster they ran into in the ballroom was the one Tommy was referring to. The other ones are kind of its... minions I guess? This doesn't get explained very well later on, so basically the main monster can create other smaller ones to do it's work for it. But it's the one that comes for you if you try to escape, also as explained by Tommy. And it will be referred to as <em>it<em>, usually_. _Yeah, I'll get more into this later. For now just try to keep up xD  
><strong>


	6. Seperated

**Just to let you know, I'll be jumping between Buford and Baljeet, and the others for a bit. You know, so you know what happens to everyone. Oh yeah, Django… I'll get to him eventually.**

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><p>They had no clue what happened. One minute, Buford and Baljeet were running up the stairs behind their friends, and then everything was black. It felt as if they were falling, but there was no impact. Then they fell unconscious.<p>

Baljeet woke first. He lifted himself to his feet, trying to ignore his sore muscles, and looked around, greatly confused as to what the hell was going on. He saw Buford lying a few feet away, still unconscious, and they were in another hallway. The others were nowhere in sight. But Baljeet got the feeling that this time, the two of them were the ones to disappear.

The young Indian boy sighed and sat down, seeing nothing else better to do until Buford woke up. The truth was, while he was terrified beyond belief, over the years, he had managed to give himself less of a helpless appearance. He still loved school and math, but he now took more time for fun and hanging out with his friends, as long as he still kept his grades up. He was no longer the helpless nerd he had been two years before. True, Buford still bullied him sometimes, but the two of them were better friends now than enemies. Well, they better be, seeing as it was only the two of them for now.

Buford woke up a few minutes later. He stood up and rubbed the large bump on his head, looking around. He saw Baljeet sitting a few feet away, and that was it.

"Where are we?" he asked. Baljeet turned to look at him, seeing that he was now awake.

"We appear to be in a hallway," he answered. "Remember; we were running up the stairs, and I can't remember anything between that and waking up here. I don't know where everyone else is."

"Then what do we do now?" asked the bully. "You're the smart one."

Baljeet just shrugged, standing up.

"We should probably keep moving," he decided. "If we stay here, we'll make no progress whatsoever."

Buford thought for a moment, deciding in the end that it would best to let Baljeet do the thinking. He nodded, and then followed the young Indian down the hallway.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, Phineas, Ferb, Isabella, and Irving were just getting ready to continue exploring. They had been resting for five minutes, which was mostly for Isabella, seeing as she had those nasty scratches. But she insisted that the keep moving.<p>

"Alright, now we need to find Buford and Baljeet, and we still need to find Django," said Phineas. The four of them were standing in the middle of the room talking.

"We have no idea where we're going, so we might as well just pick a door and hope for the best," decided Ferb. The others agreed, and the green haired boy picked a door at random. When he put his hand on the rusty handle, the house shook slightly, but nothing more, so they continued on through. They ended up in another long hallway. Ferb led the way, Irving just behind, while Phineas and Isabella hung back, talking. Well, at the moment, Phineas was just worrying about the later.

"Trust me Phineas, I feel a lot better now," she kept insisting. It wasn't a total lie; she did feel better, just not a lot. And he wasn't buying it, but the young inventor decided to leave the subject alone.

"Okay, if you say you're fine, then you're fine," he conceded.

Isabella smiled at his concern though. She liked knowing that he cared enough about her to be constantly checking.

"You know, if the house wasn't trying to kill it, it might actually be nice in here," she pointed out. Phineas laughed at her attempt at lightening the situation. It definitely worked.

"Yeah, just put up some lights, clean up all the broken glass, call the monster exterminator…"

The two of them laughed together at that. Even after what just happened, it was nice to be able to laugh about something. It helped keep them calm, which was very important.

"Hey guys, check this out," Ferb said from up ahead. He was standing in a doorway that had no door. Phineas and Isabella caught up to him. He stepped aside to allow them to look, and they were horrified by what they saw.

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><p>While the four of them explored the house, Buford and Baljeet were running into some serious problems. Not only were they being chased by <em>a shadow, <em>but they had just escaped _a giant killer spider. _Let me tell you how it went down.

So they were walking along, minding their own business, not making any progress, when suddenly there was a weird clicking noise coming from above them. They looked up, to see a huge black spider perched on the ceiling. It had shining red eyes, and enormous teeth, which was weird, but true. They were frozen in fear until the spider flipped around and landed on the floor just in front of them. They instantly turned around and started sprinting away. The spider reacted by beginning to chase them. It wasn't incredibly fast, but it was fast enough to keep the boys sprinting to get away. They ran down the seemingly endless hallway, seeing no doorways or staircases or anything that they could use to get away. The spider followed, not seeming to get tired at all from the running.

It didn't take long for the boys to realize that running would obviously get them nowhere. All it would do was tire them out, and they would eventually be caught. Baljeet looked over to Buford, and an unspoken agreement passed between them. The Indian boy nodded, and they both turned around, firmly standing their ground. The spider seemed surprised that they were facing up to it now. It skidded to a halt, stopping right in front of them versus plowing into them. It then opened its fangs and let out a low roar. Baljeet, and surprisingly Buford, both had to use all of their will power not to continue running away in terror. Both were panting from their previous run, but they managed to stay where they were. The spider fell silent, and then started slowly moving forward again. And then, using a move they had perfected in PE class, Baljeet took a step towards Buford and stepped into his outstretched hands. The larger boy then launched the smaller one overtop of the spider.

Baljeet did a front flip in mid-air and landed directly behind the giant arachnid. The spider tried to turn around in the hallway, and while it was distracted, Buford came up behind it and kicked out one of its legs. Well, he tried to, but the second his foot made contact, the entire spider dissolved into a pile of black dust. The boys coughed as the dust was stirred up, not wanting to breathe it in, because that would be plain nasty. When it was safe to breathe without inhaling spider dust, Baljeet walked over to where Buford was standing.

"Well, that was strange," he commented, his breathing turning back to normal from after the run.

"What, and everything else in here isn't?" Buford pointed out. Baljeet nodded to show that he agreed, and the two of them turned around and continued down the long hallway.

It took all of two minutes for them to run into more problems. The hallway they were walking down kept turning, very impossibly, because Baljeet calculated that the angles of the hallways would overlap each other, but this house seemed to defy physics, so while it annoyed him slightly, the boy let it go and continued walking down the impossible hallway, in the impossible house.

Of course, the second they had turned their backs, the dust started moving, forming into shapes on its own. It lifted into the air, and moved around like smoke. And then, it came together to form a humanoid shape. Had anyone been looking, they would have said it looked like a shadow.

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><p>When Phineas and Isabella stepped into the room, the first thing that hit them was the overwhelming smell of blood. I mean, normally, humans can't smell blood, but when they're that much, trust me, they can. Red covered every surface, every table and chair, so much that the walls and even the ceiling were stained red. The room was medium sized, with no other exits, and no windows. On the far side of the room, against the red wall, there was something lying there, that could have been human, but it was too torn up to tell for sure. Whatever it was had been ripped of shreds, literally. Random pieces of whatever it was were tossed all around the room, covered in blood as well. And whatever it was, it was very obviously dead. But based on what they were seeing, it seemed like it would have happened fairly recently.<p>

None of the kids wanted to take a single step into the room. They just stood outside the doorway, horrified beyond belief, but unable to look away. Maybe it would have been worse if the dead something-or-other was actually recognizable. Because for all they knew, it could very well be Buford or Baljeet or Django.

"Why would it want to do this?" whispered Isabella, holding onto Phineas' arm for support as well as comfort. Not only was the smell making her dizzy, but she was freaked out by the room. And could you blame her really? Of course, the boys were freaked out as well, but being boys, they naturally try to hide it. Well, Phineas was never a normal kid, was he?

"I just don't know," he replied, trying to stop himself from shaking. "The monster seems to enjoy torturing it's victims before killing them. We saw that first with Tommy."

Finally, the four kids found themselves now able to move, so they turned away in disgust and walked a little down the hallway, before sitting down for a moment to stop and think.

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><p>"Well, this could be going better," panted Baljeet, who was now running alongside Buford for his life, away from this shadow that had suddenly appeared moments before. Just when they had thought they would get a break, they were running once again. This thing was terrifying in a different way though. The spider, while very large and just frankly scary, was at least a real creature. This shadow thing was even more impossible. But maybe that explained it in itself. The more impossible, the more likely you are to actually find it.<p>

"How do we manage to run into two things in a row?" asked Buford, still sprinting like crazy. The two of them turned a corner in the hallway, Baljeet glancing over his shoulder. The shadow thing was about as fast as they were, but the two boys were getting too tired to even keep running. The only thing that kept them moving was the knowledge that they would die if they slowed for even a second.

"It seems as if luck is not on our side today," Baljeet replied, looking forward again and trying to keep up the pace, which was becoming more than difficult, because while both of them had a lot of stamina, there's only so much one can take before they need to slow.

As it turned out, neither of them had to worry about slowing, because before either of them knew it, the house shook once again. Not incredibly hard, but add that onto a very sharp turn in the hallway, and a loose floor board, it's very easy to lose your balance. Which was exactly what Baljeet did.

His foot caught on the edge of the loose floorboard, and he went tumbling to the ground. He managed to catch himself before hitting his head, but now he didn't have enough time to do anything but scream as the shadow leaped into the air, letting out an ear shattering roar and coming right for him.

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><p>They weren't the only ones to feel the house shake. Phineas, Ferb, Isabella, and Irving had sat down for a minute, before continuing on again. They felt the movement more violently then Buford and Baljeet did; it caused Isabella to lose balance and fall right into Phineas' arms. Normally, this would have been wonderful for her, had it not been for the fresh claw marks on her back. She hissed in pain as she felt them start to sting again. Phineas instantly let go of her, and she took deep breaths as the pain subsided.<p>

"Maybe I should check to see how if they're doing any better," he offered, looking very worried. Isabella nodded and turned around so her back was facing him. Phineas carefully untied the makeshift bandage and lifted it away. His concern only worsened when he saw the state of Isabella's wounds.

"Well, at least they stopped bleeding," he said, trying to focus on the positive as he usually did. He carefully tied the bandage back on and took Isabella's hand.

"As soon as we get out of here, we're taking you to the hospital," he promised. Isabella smiled.

"Thanks Phineas," she said. He smiled back and looked over at his brother and friend. Ferb and Irving were standing by, not interfering, not wanting to get in their way. Phineas felt grateful for this, although he couldn't quite figure out why. He shrugged it off and he and Isabella walked over to them.

"Shall we keep moving?" he asked.

"We'd better, otherwise we definitely won't find anything," agreed Ferb.

Of course, the second they began to move again, they ran into more trouble. The house shook again, so hard this time that no one could stay on their feet. It felt like an actual earthquake, although it wasn't likely that it actually was. The house was messing with them.

Isabella fell backwards and her back slammed into the wall. Phineas tried to stabilize himself on that wall, but his feet slid out from underneath him, and the same with Ferb and Irving. Everyone lay on the ground as it shook, trying to stay where they were, and then the shaking started decreasing. It was still there, but they were able to stand up now without falling over every two seconds.

"Alright, we need to find somewhere safe now!" shouted Phineas over the noise that the house was making. Everyone got to their feet and stumbled down the hall as fast as they could without tripping. The shaking stayed the same as they ran. And then, just their luck, just before the shaking cut off completely, there was a sudden tremor harder than any of the ones that had happened before. And Irving just happened to be standing over a particularly unstable section of the floor, and so when he took a step back to stabilize himself, the boards gave way, and his friends were helpless to do anything as he plunged into the darkness below.

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><p><strong>Hmm, two cliff-hangers! I must hate you guys xD Nah, just kidding! ILU *heart heart heart*<strong>

**Don't worry, I'll tell you what happens to them next chapter! Sort of xD  
><strong>


	7. Lights Out

**Alright, this chapter is complete action. It's a bit short, but that's because I wanted to cover the cliff-hangers in this one. That means there will be no Phineas, Ferb, or Isabella in this chapter. I'll do them in the next one. This chapter is a bit of a tear-jerker near the end, so beware! Now read.**

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><p>Irving walked slowly down the hallway, jumping at every sound, at every sign of pretty much anything. His breathing was heavy, his hands were sweating, and he was about to lose it. Not only had he fallen through the floor and then blacked out before hitting anything, but now he was alone. Before, it hadn't been as bad. His friends had been there with him. Yes, he had been terrified, but now there was no one but him, and a long, dark hallway. He had been walking for several minutes, and finally he saw something. A door. He carefully walked up to it and placed his hand on the handle, expecting something to happen, but nothing did, and so he opened it. The door swung open with a loud creaking sound, making him wince in fear that something had heard it.<p>

The room he was in was different. Before, they had mostly been small, with maybe a chair or table or window, but this room looked like a large, empty basement. The ceiling was high, held up by wooden poles every once in a while. Another strange thing was the light bulbs. There was a dim, flickering light bulb hanging from the ceiling not far from the door, illuminating a few meters, and then another light, and another, all lining the ceiling to light the way. The rest of the house had been dark. Of course they were able to see perfectly fine, but this room was actually light. They made Irving feel safer, because if there was light, then there couldn't be the monster.

He closed the door quietly behind him and looked around briefly. The wide room went on for several meters, before turning off to the right. There were no doors or windows, nothing but the lights, and the wooden poles. He took a careful step forward, and then started walking through the room, still on the lookout for anything strange or abnormal.

The floor creaked loudly underneath him, and he winced at every sound he made, terrified that something would find him because of the noise he was making. He turned the corner and saw the room continue to stretch out, and then it just stopped. Irving didn't see any other doors, so he went to turn around to leave and find somewhere else, but when he looked back the way he had come, the door was gone. The room still looked the same, but there was now no way out.

"This is not happening this is not happening this is not happening," he mumbled, pacing back and forth around the room. He was just turning the corner again when he heard something. He slowly turned around to see what had made the _pop _sound.

The first light bulb was broken. Irving started backing away in terror, and then the second light bulb broke on its own, without anything visible that had done anything to it. He continued backing away, and then the third went out, and the fourth, seeming to be following him. The room slowly got darker, and the bulbs continued to break. And then he saw it.

_It_ came out of the darkness. Hovering just at the edge of the shadows, _it_ stood there, or more like sat there. _It _was the monster that Irving had seen in the ballroom, the monster that had tried to kill them. He could see it better this time, although he dared not try to explain it, for his mind could only comprehend his panic. He backed away faster and faster, and it kept coming, until Irving felt himself hit the wall. There was nowhere else to run. It approached slowly, as if to terrify him with having to watch it. The lights went out just ahead of it, until they left only one light on, just above where Irving was standing. But now the monster was upon him, and he couldn't even bring himself to close his eyes.

Had anyone been around, they would have heard a single piercing scream that was suddenly cut off, just as the last light went out.

* * *

><p>Baljeet screamed in terror and covered his eyes, but the impact never came. He looked up, and to his complete and utter surprise, Buford was actually fighting with the shadow. How was that even possible?<p>

"No one bullies the nerd but me!" he shouted, swinging his fist around to the black humanoid figure. His fist went right through, and the creature let out a vaguely human scream of pain. It then lunged forward, separating itself and surrounding Buford. The bully swatted at the black dust, and felt himself unable to breathe. The shadow was trying to suffocate him. Driven by pure adrenaline, Baljeet instantly jumped up and ran towards his friend. He grabbed Buford's arm and pulled him out of the cloud of black. The larger boy gasped for breath, and they saw the shadow form itself into a human shape once again.

This time, instead of charging them, it started to grow. It expanded, and then it started growing other limbs; six arms, razor sharp claws, red eyes. It grew until it was nearly as tall as the ceiling, and then it opened its mouth, and let out an inhuman shriek. Its two sets or pointed teeth clicked together, and the boys stood there, partially frozen, until it started moving towards them again, and they managed to being backing away. It wasn't moving very fast, but it didn't need to. Both of the boys were exhausted and terrified, and they just continued backing up, just fast enough not to be caught. That is, until the shadow decided to pick up the pace.

It moved too fast for them to see. One moment it was slowly stalking them, and the next it shot across the floor and took out their feet. Buford and Baljeet fell to the ground and the shadow came around for another hit. It surrounded Baljeet and lifted him into the air. He was unable to breathe, and then it dropped him the few feet to the floor. He managed to land on his left arm, which started hurting like crazy. He started to try to get up, but the shadow was too fast. It charged at him once again, its razor claws outstretched. Baljeet couldn't even close his eyes this time. He knew that this had to be it; there was no escaping it, no moving out of the way. This was how he was going to die. His voice failed him and he did not scream.

But he didn't have to. Because at the last second before the claws hit him, Buford jumped into his way. The bully stood there and didn't even try to defend himself as the three dagger-like claws were plunged deep into his stomach. He let out a gurgled cry, and slumped to the ground. Baljeet was in total shock, but something managed to get him on his feet, and he started shouting meaninglessly. He launched himself towards the monster…

And the second he hit it, it vanished. Baljeet tumbled to the floor, and knew he didn't have a second to waste. He ran towards his friend and knelt down next to him. But no matter what he did, he knew that even he wasn't able to help Buford. Tears started falling down his cheeks as he watched his friend dying before him.

"C'mon old buddy, you can make it," he said, although it was more to comfort them. Buford managed a weak smile.

"No problem Jeet," he whispered weakly. "You just find the others and get out of this hell-hole."

"But you saved me, I cannot just leave you!" Baljeet exclaimed, trying desperately to stop the thick blood that was flowing out of the three large wounds. But Buford pushed him away.

"You need to get out of here, it could come back," he insisted. "Don't make me die for nothing."

Baljeet stood up and wiped away his tears, promising himself he wouldn't cry until Buford couldn't see him anymore. The bully smiled, and closed his eyes.

"You have to live for both of us now," he whispered, just loud enough for Baljeet to hear. "So don't screw it up."

That was the last thing Buford Van Stomm ever said. Baljeet didn't stay. He couldn't. Instead, he turned around, and ran away.

He did not look back.

* * *

><p><strong>I'm so evil aren't I! Now, as for Phineas, Ferb, and Isabella… the next chapter will be completely on them. Well, almost completely. So, your thoughts? If you're pissed off at me, try not to word your review as a flame please. Thanks!<strong>


	8. Just in Case

**Phinabella fans, you will love me, and then hate me in this chapter. That's all I'm going to say.**

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><p>"Irving!" Phineas, Ferb, and Isabella all shouted out together. But it was too late. The floor had given way, and their friend was gone. They couldn't even hear him scream; everything was eerily silent, which seemed inappropriate for the given situation. Irving was gone now as well, and now it was just the three of them. Feeling unable to stay by that giant gaping hole in the floorboards, the three remaining kids walked swiftly down the hallway and a minute later found a door, quickly going in. The room, luckily for them, was normal enough, with four chairs seated around a large table, and a single picture frame with no picture inside. Ferb sat down at one of the chairs and put his head in his hands, not speaking. Isabella walked to the far side of the room and sat down, leaning back carefully against the wall. Phineas had to make the decision of comforting his brother, or his best friend. He took a step forward, and Ferb looked up. He gestured his head towards Isabella, signalling that he thought Phineas should go talk to her. The red-head nodded and walked over to sit next to her. She didn't look up at him, only stared at her feet.<p>

"Why does this have to happen to us?" Isabella asked softly. Phineas hesitated only briefly, knowing that he couldn't start freaking out now.

"Because we were curious," he answered. "We were overly curious, and we didn't get out while we had the chance. But that doesn't mean we won't find our way out eventually."

"But even if we could get out, who knows how long we'd be here!" she exclaimed, looking up at him finally. "I mean, Tommy was here for a whole year somehow, and he only just died tonight. Where does that leave us?"

"All I know is if he managed to survive for that long, than we can get out easy. He was alone, and we're still together."

Isabella sighed and tried for a small smile.

"I don't know what I'd do if you weren't here," she said, blushing slightly. Phineas felt a blush rising to his face as well, and he was glad it was dark in the room.

"Well you don't need to worry about that, because there's no way I'm leaving your side until we're safe," he told her. Isabella was about to respond, when she suddenly felt something weird on her back.

"What's with the wall?" she asked. Phineas turned around, not seeing anything. Isabella hit her elbow back against the wood, sure that she had felt something. She hit it again, and then the board came loose behind her and she fell backwards onto solid ground.

"Whoa, there's another room here!" she said, standing up. Phineas knelt down and crawled through the opening, Ferb getting up as well and following. The three kids found themselves in a larger room, much like the dining room, because it was twice as long as most of the others they had found previously. It was completely empty, except for an open window, and a door on the left side.

"Be careful not to get too close to the window," cautioned Phineas, knowing that if they even got too close by accident, something bad would happen. They stuck to the left side of the room, opposite the window, and made their way carefully to the door. The boards underneath them seemed to give slightly under their weight, so they had to be very careful. Luckily, none of them fell through the floor like Irving had. Isabella put her hand on the handle and pulled, but it stuck.

"It's locked," she said, trying harder, but not getting anywhere. Phineas and Ferb both tried as well, but it wouldn't budge. They were about to go back into the other room, but when they looked, the missing board was back in place. Ferb ran to the wall and shoved against it, trying to make a board come loose again, but they stayed exactly where they were.

"The only ways out are the door and the window," he said. "And we all know that the window isn't an option."

"And there's no key anywhere in here," added Phineas. "So we break down the door?"

"I guess we have to," agreed Isabella. The three of them stood back, not too close to the window though, and Ferb counted to three. On three, they ran forward and hit the door as hard as they could. It moved slightly, but didn't open yet. They did it again, and this time the wood scraped slightly against the floor.

"One more time," said Phineas. "One, two, three!"

They ran at the door again, and this time when they hit it, it opened without a problem and the three of them fell through. They quickly stood up, alert of any danger, but all they saw was a large room, with a high ceiling, and broken light bulbs all along the top. The room turned off in several meters, so the three of them followed the trail of broken bulbs across the room. When they reached the turn, the room suddenly got darker, which was weird, because there wasn't any change in lighting- or non-lighting.

"Why is it suddenly so cold?" asked Isabella, shivering slightly. It was true; the temperature had dropped several degrees and a strong feeling of unease set over the small group.

"I don't know but- hey, what's that?" Phineas cut off what he was saying, and pointed to the end of the room, where something was lying in a heap in the floor. They slowly walked over, and when they saw what was lying there, no one could breathe.

Well, now they knew what happened to Irving.

The young boy lay on the floor, his life already bled out of him. There were several large slash marks across his chest, and his shirt was completely shredded. He was lying in a pool of blood much like Tommy had been.

Isabella let out a sob and buried her head in Phineas' shoulder. He put his arm around her and felt the tears sliding down his cheeks. Ferb didn't bother with an examination this time- it was obvious how their friend had died. The green-haired boy took deep breaths to avoid losing whatever sense he had left. And he noticed something, and the rest of the color left his face.

"There's something written next to him," he managed to get out. Phineas and Isabella looked to where he pointed, and what they saw made their blood run cold.

Written hurriedly in their friend's blood, was a single word.

_Run._

And so they did.

* * *

><p>They didn't know how long they had been running for, but finally, when they felt as if they couldn't take it anymore, they stopped. Phineas held the door open to the room for his brother and friend, and then closed it quietly behind them. The room has only a little more furniture than the one with the loose board- the same table and chairs, and there were cabinets lining the right wall. Ferb took to looking through the cabinets to distract himself while he let his brother and Isabella finish their conversation from earlier. They sat against the wall like before, and Phineas wiped a stray tear off Isabella's cheek.<p>

"It never really set in until now," said Isabella gazing at the floor. "I know we saw Tommy, but that was different. He was gone for a year, and even before I didn't know him that well. But Irving I knew. We could have saved him; we could have stopped him from falling."

"No one could have prevented it," said Phineas, taking Isabella's hand. "And we can't think about it now. We need to think about finding the front door. I know I've said this before, but it couldn't be more important now."

"But what about the others?" she asked, looking up at Phineas. He tried to keep his expression calm as he answered.

"I'm getting you out of here, and then Ferb and I can come back for them. You can warn everyone. I know the adults won't believe us, but everyone else will, because they all know it's true. We tell every kid to stay away. And with what's already happened, they will. Because now they'll know for sure what happens when you come in. As soon as Ferb and I find everyone else, we'll find our way out, and never come back."

"I can't let you come back in here without me!" argued Isabella.

"And I can't let you be in any more danger," Phineas said gently, not wanting to sound like he was being difficult. Isabella sighed, and then nodded.

Phineas managed a smile, trying as hard as he could to believe that everything would turn out fine. But it was obvious from Isabella's face, that she didn't believe that as well. The two of them fell into silence, and then Isabella spoke again, her voice soft.

"You know what could happen today," she began.

"I promised I'd get you out," he started to say, but Isabella continued talking.

"I know what you said, but we have to face the fact that one of us may not make it out of here. And in case we don't, there's something I need you to know."

Phineas nodded for her to continue, highly curious now. Isabella hesitated, and then seemed to come to decision.

"It's something I've wanted to tell you ever since I first met you," she said. She paused, and when she spoke again, her voice was just barely audible.

"_I love you,_" she whispered.

Phineas didn't know what to say. When he heard those three words, he felt himself unable to even process anything else that was going on. His mind wandered back to those summer days, when Isabella was come over every day, and the look in her eyes… it was one that he had never noticed before, but now it all made sense. Everything she had done now made sense, and he realized that she had said those words a long time ago, in everything she had done, but he hadn't been listening close enough to hear them.

Phineas was brought back to the present to hear Isabella crying softly to herself. Feeling concerned all of a sudden, Phineas moved over closer to her and hugged her close.

"I didn't know what you'd say, but I didn't want us to die without you knowing," she sobbed. Phineas knew that what he said now would be very important.

"You had nothing to worry about, I could never be angry with you," he told her. Isabella looked up at him, trying to stop the tears from flowing, but not doing a very good job at it. Phineas gave her a smile.

"I guess I always sort of knew; it just took you saying it for me to realize it," he said. Isabella finally stopped her tears and sat up, although Phineas didn't move his arms, which she definitely was not complaining about.

"And where do you stand with this?" she asked softly. Phineas didn't hesitate in his answer.

"I-"

He was cut off suddenly when there was loud crash that sounded right outside the door. Ferb jumped up and opened the door and looked down the hall, before turning back to his brother and friend.

"I'm sorry to interrupt, but we need to move _now_!" he told them urgently. Phineas and Isabella instantly stood up and followed him out the door. When they looked down the hall, they saw _something_ there. It wasn't the monster from the ballroom, but the darkness made it even more terrifying. From what they could see, it looked like a large wolf with red glowing eyes.

"And now we run," said Ferb, before the three of them took off at full speed down the hall. The creature snarled and launched after them. Somehow, they kids managed to stay just out of its reach as they sprinted for their lives.

The creature's paws pounded against the ground, causing the boards to creak wildly, although it didn't fall through. The kids ran as fast as they possibly could, but they were already tired from running before and this thing wasn't slowing. They figured that if they could just keep up the pace until the found a door, they would be safe. But of course, that would be too easy. And so instead of a door, they found themselves at a dead end. The three of them whipped around the face the oncoming terror.

The creature, which definitely was a giant wolf, or something like it, skidded to a halt right in front of them. It snarled loudly, and Phineas tried to take a step in front of Isabella, but she stepped up next to him and took his hand. Ferb stood on his brothers other side, and they faced it together. The creature looked almost amused, as if it knew that three kids couldn't stand up to it. It took a single step forward, and then in leaped into the air and hit the ground so hard it shook the house. It caused the kids to lose their balance and separate, enough for the creature to get at them alone. It charged at Ferb first, but Phineas jumped in its way and held up his arms to protect them. The creature slashed out and Phineas felt the claws rake down his arm. And then the creature backed off, and turned on Isabella, who was now left defenseless.

She had been knocked to the ground by the force of the shaking, and she was about to stand up to defend herself, when the creature lifted a paw up above its head, and then brought it around to hit her. It was incredibly strong, because Isabella slid clear down the hallway. She screamed, and then all was silent.

Phineas jumped up and lashed out at the creature, but the moment he made contact, it disappeared into a cloud of smoke. Not wasting a second, Phineas ran down the hallway, looking for any sign of his friend, but she was gone, just like the others. But this time it was different for him.

Phineas started to shake. He closed his eyes and tried to control the fury rising inside him. Ferb walked up behind him, not entirely sure what to do for his brother now, and Phineas opened his eyes.

"Damn it!" he shouted, and then spun around and aimed a punch at the wall. Of course, there had to be a picture frame hanging there, so the force shattered the glass. Phineas didn't move until Ferb came up to him and calmly lifted his hand away. The red-head's knuckles were bleeding now, but he couldn't feel the pain. Ferb ripped off a strip of his torn cape and wrapped it around his brother's hand.

"Phineas, I-" he started to say.

"Don't," Phineas cut in, sounding eerily calm. "I need a minute."

Ferb hesitated for half a second, and then stepped back and allowed his brother the one thing he needed. Phineas stood there for a moment, and then he dropped to his knees, put his head in his hands, and let out everything that had building up inside him since they stepped into the house.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

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><p><strong>You guys hate me now, I just know it. Awww well, you'll just have to wait until the next chapter to know what happens! Also, you'll finally figure out what the heck happened to Django, and I think you'll figure out pretty much everything else. And whatever you don't, you will in the chapter after... maybe. xD<br>**


	9. More Than Just Stepbrothers

**Okay, this should be the fourth to last chapter. You'll find out what happened with Django, as promised, and… idk what else to say xD Hmm, this was originally supposed to be joined with the next chapter, but it was getting too long, so I split it into two.**

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><p>Isabella remembered being thrown down the hall. She remembered screaming, and then her head hit something and it felt as if she was falling, until she blacked out. When she came to, she didn't open her eyes right away, scared of what she would see if she did. She was aware of a dull throbbing in her left wrist, and the scars on her back were stinging again, although not all that bad. Her head was pretty much fine, so all in all, she wasn't much worse off than before, from her first self-evaluation. When she worked up the courage to open her eyes, she did so slowly, and found herself in a dark room. She was leaning back against the wall, and she waited for her eyes to adjust to see anything else. The room was large, with a boarded up window, huge dining table against the right wall, a small desk in the left corner, and a door on the far side. Isabella had no idea what was going on until she heard something moving next to her and snapped her head around, causing her a massive amount of pain from the sudden movement.<p>

"You banged yourself up pretty bad," she heard a familiar voice say. "You might want to take it easy."

Isabella let out a huge sigh of relief, partly from knowing that it was nothing dangerous, and partly from knowing that her friend was okay.

"Django, you're alive!" she exclaimed, turning her head more slowly this time to face him. He was sitting against the wall a few feet away, smiling. His clothes were ripped and the paint brushes from his costume were missing, but he looked fine otherwise.

"And so are you," he said. With some difficulty, Isabella sat herself up, feeling the pain again in her wrist. She lifted it up and examined it carefully, but didn't see anything.

"I found you passed out in here a few minutes ago," Django explained. "You're the first live person I've seen since that weird blast of wind when we first came in. When I woke up, there was no one there, so I started walking. I guess you got separated too."

Isabella took it all in and took a deep breath. She was now the one who was gone, and she knew Phineas would be worried sick about her.

"Yeah, we ran into a weird wolf-hybrid and it attacked us," she replied after a second.

"We?" Django asked, very interested now. "So what's happened with you since I disappeared?"

"Well, we started exploring, and then Buford and Baljeet went missing," she began, but Django cut in.

"Oh, I found Buford," he said solemnly.

"Then why isn't he with you now?" Isabella asked, nervous now.

"Because I found him dead. I don't know where Baljeet is, but Buford didn't make it."

Isabella gasped and pushed back her tears. Buford she had known even better than Irving, and now he was gone?

"Neither did Irving," she said, keeping her pain under control. "He got separated next and we found him dead too. And Tommy."

"Woah woah woah, you found _Tommy?"_ Django asked in disbelief. "But he went missing a year ago!"

"That's what we said, but somehow he survived. The wounds were fresh on him; he died tonight."

"You don't think because of us, do you?"

"No one can say really."

They fell into silence, both reflecting on the news of their dead friends. But they both knew that it was not the time for sorrow. It was the time for action.

"Alright, we need to keep moving," announced Django. "If you feel fine that is. I've been avoiding this creature for a while now, and it may find us if we stay in the same place for too long."

"What kind of creature?" Isabella asked, standing up carefully.

"I haven't gotten a very good look at it, because of how dark it is, but it's not much taller than us. It looks kind of human, but with claws and bat wings. Oh, and red glowing eyes."

"Does everything in this house have claws?" Isabella mumbled. She took a step forward, and found that she was fine to walk. She let Django lead the way to the door, and they started on their way to finding their friends.

* * *

><p>It took Ferb several minutes to convince Phineas to keep moving. After the red-head finished letting out his feelings, his brother tried to encourage him by telling him that the only way to find Isabella would be to keep going, and so he finally agreed. As they walked, Ferb continued to console his brother.<p>

"Right after she tells me that she's liked- no, _loved_ me since we were little kids, she disappears," Phineas was saying. "And now I may never see her again."

Although Ferb was unused to talking as much as he now was, he knew that his brother needed him, and so he was willing to do all the talking it would take.

"You don't know that. We both know Isabella very well, enough to know that she's strong enough to take on anything that's thrown at her. If I were a monster, I'd be scared stiff of her."

Phineas had to smile at that, because he knew it was true. If anyone could take of themselves, it was her. While she would no doubt be terrified of everything that was going on, she'd be able to push through that and face her fears.

"You're right, she can take care of herself," Phineas agreed. "But that doesn't mean I'm not going to worry."

"Of course not. I'm worried about her too, remember. But not as much as I'm worried about you."

Phineas looked up at his brother, slightly confused now.

"What do you mean me?" he asked curiously. Ferb simply shrugged, looking ahead at where they were going.

"You're my little brother," he replied. "Why shouldn't I be worried?"

Phineas smiled. He knew his step-brother often worried about him, even if he rarely showed it. The two of them had always been close; from the minute they first met each other they were inseparable. True, while over the years they grew slightly more accustomed to being apart, it didn't change anything between them. They would always be more than just _step-brothers._

* * *

><p>Unbeknownst to the brothers, Isabella and Django happened to be directly underneath them at the moment. Of course, they were moving at a much faster pace, considering they were being chased.<p>

"Which way now?" shouted Isabella, trying to be heard over the noise the creature was making behind them.

"Left! Left!" he called back. The hall in front of them spilt off into two directions, as it had been doing for the past several turns, and they had to make the choice very carefully. The last time they had made a wrong turn, Isabella had almost fallen into a huge hole in the ground. They were more or less picking at random now and hoping their luck held out.

They turned left and found the hall stretched out before them, so they continued running. This creature was the one that had been trailing Django almost the whole time. He now knew that it wasn't incredibly fast, but they still had to keep up a constant pace. He had made the mistake before of slowing when it seemed like he had enough distance, but it had instantly jumped up into the air and propelled itself forward with its wings, nearly taking his head off. However, the creature could only take short bursts with its wings before it needed to set down again, so as long as they kept running, it wouldn't catch them. The only way to get away from it would be either to lose it in the maze of halls, or duck into a room and hope it didn't follow you in. But even with the moving rooms, it still managed to locate Django within a few minutes every time. He figured it was because the monsters could navigate the house no problem, while any unlucky visitors were left to guess and hope for the best with the ever-changing floor plan.

"C'mon, into that room!" he called, indicating the door just ahead of them. He ran straight into the door, busting it open. Isabella ran through and he slammed it closed behind them, putting his ear to the door. Hearing nothing, he decided that they had moved and were now safe for the next five or so minutes. Attempting to calm his breathing, he sat down on one of the two wooden chairs in the room, while Isabella took the other.

"That was pretty smart back there," he remarked, referring to her little stunt a few minutes back. When the creature had launched forward on its wings, they had been nearing a split in the hall. Thinking fast, Isabella dropped to the ground, and it sailed harmlessly over her, right into the wall. That had given them more of a lead while the creature tried to knock some sense into its head.

"Thanks," she replied, breathing slightly less heavily now. "I wouldn't have thought of it though it you hadn't already known so much about that thing. What I still don't get though is why it bothers to keep looking for you. I mean, when I was with the others, we ran into _it_ earlier, but when we moved rooms, it never followed us."

"Maybe this one just _really _dislikes me," he suggested, causing them both to laugh.

"So Phineas isn't exactly so oblivious anymore," said Django after a moment. In their brief moments of rest, they two of them had told each other what the other had missed. Isabella had eventually told him about her conversation with Phineas, not wanting to dwell on it too much though, because it hurt to think about it.

"Yeah, but I never got to hear what he would have said, because some monster came and interrupted us," she replied, rolling her eyes at the memory. That type of thing always seemed to happen to her. Right when she was about to get the perfect chance with Phineas, something would get in her way. Did the universe have something against her or what?

"Well, you can ask him when we find them," Django said. "If you managed to find Irving, and I managed to find Buford, then finding Phineas and Ferb should be no problem, because they're no doubt looking for us, and Baljeet, wherever he is."

Isabella was about to reply when there was a loud roar from down the hall. Django sighed and stood up. He quickly opened the door and looked out, before beckoning Isabella over.

"And now we run again," he said, before they both took off down the hall at full speed, away from the same creature that seemed to enjoy stalking Django wherever he went.

* * *

><p>There was another kid running for his life at the same time as they were. Baljeet didn't know what he was running from, seeing as he refused to so much as glance back; all he knew was that he needed to get away. He turned a corner in the hall and instantly ran into something, or more specifically, someone. Scrambling to his feet, he was very surprised, but not at all disappointed, to find himself faced with the Flynn-Fletcher brothers.<p>

"Baljeet!" exclaimed Phineas, standing up from the collision, a wide smile on his face at seeing their friend. "You're alive!"

"Oh my friends, I cannot believe I found you!" the young Indian boy said. "I thought I would never see another living person again!"

"Why were you running so fast?" asked Ferb, also looking pleased to see their friend. "Was something chasing you?"

Baljeet quickly turned and looked down the hall he had been running down, but he saw nothing there, to his relief.

"I was, but it appears to have vanished," he replied. "That seems to happen quite frequently in here."

"Tell me about it," agreed Phineas. "Hey, where's Buford? You two disappeared together."

Baljeet's expression darkened, and he looked down, sadness clouding his eyes. He didn't even need to speak for the brothers to sense what had happened, but he spoke anyways.

"We ran into trouble," he said, his voice slightly uneven. "And he jumped in front of a monster to protect me. There was nothing I could do for him."

At the news of their friend being dead, both Phineas and Ferb were overcome with sadness as well. Buford had been their friend since they were only five. Sure he could be a bully at times, but he was a true friend. And now he was gone.

"We can't think about that right now, it'll only distract us," Phineas said after a moment of grieving. "We have to make sure they didn't die for nothing."

"They?" echoed Baljeet, and Phineas remembered that he didn't yet know about Irving.

"Irving disappeared after you guys did. The three of us found him dead a while later."

Again the sadness settled over them, but they once again knew that they needed to focus. But there was one last thing Baljeet was wondering about.

"What has happened to Isabella?" he asked carefully. This time, Phineas didn't say anything. He looked down, and instead of sadness, his expression was one of anger, which surprised Baljeet. Ferb was the one who answered.

"She went missing following Irving," he explained, eying his brother. "But we don't have a clue what happened to her yet."

Baljeet said nothing, figuring that if he did, it would only make it worse for Phineas. Although he too worried for their friend, he knew it would be hardest on Phineas, seeing as he and Isabella had been friends longer than any of them.

"We should keep moving," said Phineas, surprising his companions. "We'll get nowhere by standing here and talking."

His brother and friend watched him for a moment, seeing his anger fade and the determined look once again set on his face. Without waiting for them to say anything, the red-headed inventor turned on his heels and headed in the direction he and Ferb had been walking before. Ferb and Baljeet paused for a second, and then hurried to catch up.

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><p><strong>Yeah… I have nothing to say here xD OH YEAH. I felt the need to do a brother-to-brother comfort moment, because there needed to be at least one in there, no matter how short. And there will be another sort of one later. In chapter 11. I think.<br>**


	10. Some Unexpected Luck

**I like this first scene, just saying. I never planned on anything like it, but it just came to me and seemed perfect. I hope you like it too!**

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><p>Within minutes, Phineas, Ferb, and Baljeet found something rather interesting. They were just walking along, when they found a doorway, with the door hanging half off its hinges. A soft breeze blew from inside, and a few sheets of loose paper were scattered in the hall just outside. Curious now, the three friends cautiously walked over and went into the room.<p>

It looked very much like a study. An open window on the far side was the source of the breeze. There was a large desk just under the window, with paper lying all on top of it, some pieces being blown off by the wind. Bookshelves covered the entire left wall, with dusty old volumes lining them. A smaller desk sat off to the side of the larger one, against the right wall, and it had a box full of old quills and ink bottles, as well as more papers. A large rug covered most of the floor, and there were a few blood stains in it. There was also a small fireplace in the right wall, with various fire pokers leaning against it.

"This looks promising," noted Phineas, walking into the room and towards the desk. Ferb took a moment to look over the bookshelves for anything that could be helpful, but it didn't take long to see that everything was written in German, one of the few languages he did not speak, and so he joined his brother and Baljeet at the desk.

"These almost look like floor plans," the red-head mumbled, looking over the many papers. He spread the decipherable ones out over the large desk and the boys all examined them. The majority of them did indeed look like floor plans, even if they were very confusing ones. They all looked very similar, as if plans for the same house. Baljeet was the first to notice something.

"Take a look at these numbers," he said, pointing to one sheet in particular. It was one of the more readable ones, although it still made no sense to either brother. In darker ink was the basic floor plan, and then there were lighter lines connecting rooms seemingly at random, and numbers quickly jotted down alongside certain spaces. There were X's over areas, and circled areas as well.

"What does all this mean?" asked Phineas, the question being directed at Baljeet. The Indian boy looked over the plan one more time before his eyes widened in disbelief.

"This is a floor plan of the house!" he exclaimed. "You see those lines? They correspond to the rooms that connect, and the numbers explain when they will move. The circled area must be stable, while that area near the bottom seems to refer to the sub levels, if there are any- wait! It refers to the number of very unstable rooms with rotating exits, appearing as sub levels, and they are grouped together as to make it easier to read! That is very clever. So this area at the top must be-"

"Woah woah woah, slow down there Jeet," interrupted Phineas. "I don't mean to be rude, but what are you talking about?"

"Well, I suppose not all of us have taken college level math classes," he replied. "To make things simpler, I can read this like a map! It can tell us how to locate the front door!"

Neither Phineas nor Ferb could believe what he was saying. Had they really been lucky enough to find a readable map of the crazy house? If so, and if Baljeet could truly read it, then they would be able to get out no problem!

"Baljeet, you are my new hero!" said Phineas simply. He high fived his friend, and then the Indian boy took to quickly scanning the map.

"Alright, if my calculations are correct, we must be here," he stated, pointing to a spot on the paper. "This room apparently does not move, most likely because the door is not on properly. If we follow this line… I've got it!"

"Then lead the way!" said Phineas, gesturing to the door. Baljeet began walking out, still studying the map. Ferb followed, and Phineas was about to, when he paused for a second. He quickly ran back and grabbed one of the fire pokers, thinking it may be useful, and headed out the door after the others.

* * *

><p>This creature was <em>really <em>starting to get on Isabella's nerves. If she was going to be chased almost every second, it would be nice to have some variety, but this same winged creature seemed determined to keep at it until they were dead. After a few times, it got more annoying than scary, because while it wasn't very fast, it also wasn't very smart, and kept falling for the same tricks over and over again.

After ducking and having it run into the wall for the fifth time, she was in desperate need of something new.

"This is getting old," she panted.

"We need to find a way to get rid of it for good," agreed Django, who was running alongside her. They turned a corner and kept running down a long hallway. The creature let out a shriek and continued chasing after them.

The hall stayed the same for several minutes, and they didn't see anything. Neither of them felt like they could run for much longer; they had been doing so for almost ten minutes. True, when your life is at risk, you can do almost anything, but that doesn't mean you can run that long without getting tired. So when Isabella finally saw something ahead, she was almost relieved, until she saw what it was.

"Django, stop!" she said urgently. She instantly stopped and grabbed his arm just in time to keep him from falling through the giant hole in the ground. The hallway suddenly cut off at a dead end, and an empty space covered several meters to the wall. With nowhere to run, Isabella trusted her instincts and, at the last second, ducked down, bringing Django down with her, and the creature sailed straight over them. It crashed into the wall, before gravity took over and it plunged into the darkness below. Its cries could be heard for several seconds, and then all fell silent. The two kids sat there panting, glad to finally be able to rest.

"Quick thinking again," Django managed to get out between gasps for air. Isabella only smiled in reply, too tired to do anything else at the moment. They both sat there for a few minutes longer, before they were able to stand up without their legs giving out from exhaustion. The only way to go was back where they had already come from, so they headed down the same hallway again, in hopes of finding a room this time.

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><p>Following the map was confusing at first, but Baljeet was a great problem solver, and he was finally able to get a solid system down for tracking their progress. It began with many wrong turns and dead ends until he noticed patterns and certain numbers and was able to test out his navigation skills by leading them back to a room they had already been in before. It had worked, so he was now sure he could successfully get them anywhere in the house, including the front door. There was just one little problem. There was no way they were leaving without Isabella and Django, who could still possibly be alive somewhere, just lost. But the map didn't show them how to find their friends, so they were forced to keep wandering.<p>

After at least an hour of aimless walking, they sat down to rest in a small room with four chairs and a little table.

"I don't know about you guys, but I'm getting kind of hungry," commented Phineas, leaning back in his chair.

"I too am wishing we had brought something along to satisfy ourselves," Baljeet agreed, sighing. He glanced at the map quickly again, knowing that they had moved, and he tried to figure out where they would be once they left the room.

"I wonder what time it is now?" wondered the red-head. Both Baljeet and his brother looked at him. None of them had any means to check the time, but it always looked dark outside. It had been around seven o' clock when they had gone in the mansion, and they had been in there for hours, yet they had no way of properly tracking time, so they were left to guess. It was mostly likely early the next morning, but again, there was no way to tell.

"I was wondering earlier if time runs differently in this house," said Baljeet, as his friends looked at him curiously, so he explained more. "What I mean to say is perhaps this monster is able to alter the flow of time. What other way could Tommy have survived for this long without food and water? He would never have lasted longer than a week, and yet he died today, or yesterday, depending on when it actually is. So we never know how time is running in here. For all we know a month could have passed by us already, and we would never know until we left here. It is also possible that our time perception is altered when inside, so that we cannot try to guess how long we have been trapped inside. Without an accurate method for measuring time, you would have no way of knowing when it was midnight, and when the door would open."

What he said made sense to the brothers. If time really was different, who knows how long they had been gone for? Maybe they had been gone for weeks, and their parents had called the police, but of course nothing could be found. Either way, there would be a lot of trouble once they got out, if ever they did. What would they even say to all the questions? But they didn't have time to linger on the future. All that mattered at the moment was what was happening inside the mansion.

"We shouldn't think about it too much; it'll only distract us," suggested Phineas. The others agreed and stood up along with him, and they left the room. Phineas still had that fire poker he had grabbed earlier. He hadn't needed to use it just yet, but it felt good to have it in case they ran into trouble. Plus, it was pretty much all they had found of that sort, so they thought it best to keep it.

Who knows how long later, Baljeet started having trouble with the map. He was rambling on about how some lines intersected, which meant they could be in one of three places, and he could have sworn that lines had been added and moved around, and how once they ended up in a completely different place than he expected them to. He said it was some kind of interference? But even that didn't make any sense to him.

Seeing as they found nothing while walking, they made next to no progress, other than aimless walking. They were just about to rest again, when Phineas heard something up ahead. He stood up and started running towards it, the others following. Up ahead in the hall, it went on ahead, and another shorter hall turned off to the right. He stopped by the turn, seeing that at the other side, it was the same as his side. He didn't hear anything else, and was about to pass it off for nothing, and started to turn away, when something caught his eye. He whipped his head around to face the hall, and he couldn't believe his eyes.

* * *

><p>Good news: that same monster stopped chasing Isabella and Django. Bad news: every other single monster seemed to find them now.<p>

It started with some weird misty humanoid shape whose wails caused the two kids to have ears ringing for minutes after. Somehow they lost it, and then they ran into something that looked like a cross between a tiger and a spider. Once they lost that, they found themselves being chased yet again, this time by a shadow much like the one that had chased Baljeet and Buford earlier, except this one was solid. The two of them had been running almost the whole time, other than when they stopped to try to fight the tiger/spider.

"We got to lose this one now," panted Isabella, who felt like she couldn't run another step.

"But there's nothing here," Django called back, seeing as he was a foot behind her. "And how can we even fight a shadow?"

Isabella desperately racked her brain, trying to think of anything that could be useful. They turned a corner, and then she remembered something when the floor creaked under her feet. Knowing that if she was wrong, they were as good as dead, she stopped running and pushed against a board in the wall. She let out a triumphant cry as it came loose, and she grabbed it before it fell into the blackness behind it. Django stopped just next to her, and she swung the board around as hard as she could. It came in direct contact with the black shape, and it fell to the ground. The young girl couldn't believe she had just done that.

They two kids backed up slowly as the black shape stood up. It opened its mouth, showcasing four sets of razor sharp teeth, and a black snake-like tongue. It hissed loudly, and then advanced on them. Django did the same as Isabella, and got himself a loose board, holding it up protectively in front of him. The creature made a sound that sounded vaguely like laughter, as if it found their desperate defense attempts amusing.

Isabella swung the board again as the creature came close to them. It backed up, and she missed, and then lunged forward, Django swung out and hit it, and while it was distracted, they ran. After a few seconds the creature was in hot pursuit again, however it was going noticeably slower this time. The kids, driven by pure adrenaline, sprinted as fast as they could down the long, dark hall. They slowed down as they gained more distance, and finally when Isabella glanced behind her, the creature was nowhere to be seen. As they neared a turn in the hall, they stopped running finally. Isabella let the board fall to the floor as she stopped in the middle of the hall, placing her hands on her knees and breathing heavily.

And then, all of a sudden, she heard a sound, or more accurately, a voice. A voice she was sure she would never live to hear again.

"Isabella?"

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><p>C<strong>liff-hanger! Also, the next chapter will be the second to last one. I'll update the final one on Monday (Halloween). Now, reviews?<strong>


	11. It All Ends Here

**This chapter is LOOOOOOOOOONG, because I didn't want to have to split it, and I gave myself a deadline, so if I don't submit it as one, it won't work like I wanted it to. Anyways… I've been playing this chapter out in my mind, ESPECIALLY the end scene, ever since I got the idea for the story. I just love the end and hope you do to!**

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><p>It didn't even matter how tired she was. The second she saw him, Isabella ran down the hallway and launched herself into Phineas' arms. She felt the tears come to her eyes and felt his arms wrap around her. They stayed that way for several seconds, and then pulled away.<p>

"I can't believe you're alive!" he exclaimed, his face a mask of pure joy. "When you disappeared, I thought I'd never see you again."

Isabella almost couldn't speak; that was just how ecstatic she was too see him again, and alive at that. She didn't even know what she would have done had she found him with the life already drained out of him. But here he was.

"You can't get rid of me that easily Phineas," she teased, both of them smiling. They were brought back to the current situation when someone cleared their throat. They both looked over to see their three friends politely standing by, and it was unclear who had caught their attention.

"Django, is that seriously you?" confirmed Phineas, seeing his other friend for the first time. Django just smiled and shrugged as if it was no big deal.

"Looks like the five of us made it this far," he said, he along with Ferb and Baljeet walking over to their friends. "And now we need to make sure we make it the rest of the way."

"Alright, we'll catch up later then," decided Phineas. "Right now we need to focus. Now that we're back together, we need to keep it that way. If one of us gets lost again, who knows what'll happen. We'll follow the map and get the heck out of here."

"Wait, what map?" interrupted Isabella, who of course hadn't heard about it yet.

"Oh, we found a floor plan of the house that Baljeet can read," he explained, smiling at her awed expression. "So far it's worked well enough, so we don't have much to lose following it."

Isabella nodded slowly, deciding it would be best to let the geniuses deal with the complicated stuff. Isabella then said a quick hello to Ferb and Baljeet, and then the later took out the map for everyone to see.

"According to the map, we should be here at the moment," he said, almost to himself. "We follow the hall straight, and then the upcoming room will take us to that hallway… alright, follow me, my friends!"

The others smiled as he began his march down the hallway, the map held out in front of him. They quickly followed in step, sticking close to one another in fear of being separated. Ferb was walking in the back, offering to keep an eye out behind them. Django was checking out the map with Baljeet, and Phineas and Isabella were walking side by side, hand in hand, glad to be together again. They were telling each what had happened since separating, and Phineas was horrified to hear how many creatures she had run into.

"It was nothing," she insisted, although her still-burning lungs begged to differ. "The monsters we ran into weren't all that smart, especially not the first one. It kept flying into the wall."

The two of them shared a laugh, effectively lightening the situation. But of course that didn't last for long. Not five minutes after starting on their way again, there was a loud _thump _from behind them. They all whipped around, trying to see through the darkness, but to no avail. They heard nothing else at first, but they all knew by now that it was never just nothing. They waited in silence, Phineas holding his fire-poker he still kept up in front of him, his brother on his left side, and his best friend on his right. After a minute of hearing or seeing nothing else, they slowly relaxed, but still kept on alert, and began walking again. About two seconds later it sounded again, much louder and sounding a whole lot closer, making everyone jump. They waited, their eyes darting back and forth in the dim space, seeing nothing, but it sounded again, and this time they started carefully walking back, Django and Baljeet facing forward just in case something else came.

It kept happening. The sounds got more frequent, but stopped varying in volume. It was as if something was there just out of their sight that was staying far enough way to avoid being seen, but wanting to be heard just to mess with them. The kids continued on slowly, knowing there was no point in running from something you couldn't even see. That was to their advantage slightly; if it wasn't coming close enough to be seen, then it couldn't attack.

Or so they thought.

No one knew how, but one moment they were carefully backing up, and the next, Django found his feet being swept out from underneath him. He hit the floor with a groan, and the others all formed into a tight circle, back to back to avoid having anything sneak up. Of course, that wasn't going to work either. Just as Django stood up, Ferb's feet were swept out from under him, and then Isabella's. They both quickly stood back up and rejoined the circle. Nothing happened for several endless seconds, and then there was a quick and sudden shake of the house, causing everyone to fall down. This was just the chance it needed.

It came out of the darkness, still unseen by the kids who were desperately trying to regain their footing. It twisted all around them and tripped them to the ground again and again until they were almost too sore to stand up, but they did every time. Phineas swung out with his pole, and it made contact with something. That something then retreated away, leaving everyone lying there on the floor.

"What was that?" groaned Phineas, standing up and helping his friends to his feet. His hand was stinging again, the one that had been sliced open from the picture frame earlier, but he ignored it to make sure everyone else was okay.

"No idea," replied Django, who was massaging an arm he had landed on repeatedly. "But whatever it was, I think is different than the other monsters."

"That much is correct," added Baljeet. "However, we must keep moving forward. No doubt that was trying to slow our progress, seeing as it did not do us a great deal of harm."

"That sounds about right," agreed Phineas. Without another word, the five kids continued cautiously on. They didn't know why they didn't get attacked for another solid ten minutes, but they weren't complaining. A break was definitely what they needed.

Wait, spoke too soon.

Ten minutes after that unseen creature found it amusing to trip them, there was yet another bang, this time much louder than the others. It sounded again after a few seconds, sounding significantly closer to them. They didn't have any more time for games, and so after the fourth bang, everyone broke into a run away from the noise. It followed them as they ran through the twisting hallways, following Baljeet who was trying to read the map and run at the same time, which proved to be difficult. The five kids continued running away from the sound, and then they were finally forced to stop when they hit a dead end.

"That cannot be!" insisted Baljeet. "We were following the map correctly!"

But they didn't have time for figuring out why they had hit the dead end. What they needed to do was figure out what would happen next, because the noises were sounding closer every second, and they had to do something fast. They tried to see if the boards in the walls would come loose, but they weren't giving. When they looked back in the direction of the hall, they could see something lurking in the shadows, but it wasn't close enough yet.

And then Phineas had an idea. A completely stupid and reckless idea, but he knew it would get them away.

"Alright, everyone hold on to one another," he ordered.

"What do you have in mind?" Ferb asked, facing the hall in case they were attacked.

"I have an idea, but I need you guys to trust me," was Phineas' answer. And of course, his friends would all trust him with their lives, which was exactly what they were doing. Once they were all holding onto each other forming a small circle, Phineas told them what he was thinking.

"On the count of three, we jump into the air, and hit the ground as hard as we can. We're trying to make the floor give."

"What?" said Django, looking at the red-haired boy like he was crazy. "But we don't know what's down there, and we could get separated."

"I know," replied Phineas softly. "But I'm not risking having another one of us die. So on three, okay?"

The other four looked at him for a moment, and then at each other. They knew the idea was beyond stupid, but this was Phineas, and if there was anyone they would put their trust into, it was him.

"Let's do it," said Isabella, speaking for all of them. Phineas smiled briefly at his friends, and then they heard the bang again, and his face turned serious again.

"Alright, on three. One, two, three!"

They jumped as one and landed heavily on the ground. The floor creaked loudly, but didn't give yet, and so they tried again, and again.

On the fourth time, nothing happened for a moment, and then there was a distinct cracking sound, and in a second, the boards underneath them broke free and fell into the blackness below, taking the kids along with them.

Phineas instantly tightened his grip on Ferb and Isabella's hand, who he was currently holding onto. He was not going to let go, no matter what. He was NOT going to lose them again. The fall continued for several seconds, and then Phineas felt something come in contact with his head, and in a second, he blacked out.

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><p>They all woke up at about the same time. Phineas sat up and rubbed his head, which was aching from the fall. It took him a few seconds, and then he remembered what had happened. His eyes widening, he jumped to his feet, ignoring the pain, and looked around desperately for his friends. He saw with immense relief that all four of them were there. They were all in another hallway, all randomly lying about on the ground. Isabella was a few feet away from where Phineas now stood, Ferb a few feet past her. Baljeet was farther down the hall, and Django was on his other side. The red-haired boy picked his fire poker back up, and all of them slowly got to their feet and they met in the middle of the hall.<p>

"Is everyone okay?" asked Phineas. There were a few nods and Django mumbled something along the lines of "_stupid #%$*&%$ house._"

"Well, the good news is we're all still together, and the creature is gone," Phineas said. "Now we just need to figure out where we are and we can keep trying to find the door."

"I think that will be much easier than we thought," announced Baljeet, who had wandered slightly down the hall. About ten meters away from where they now stood, there was a turn off in the hall that appeared to look over a balcony. Baljeet was standing there, a wide smile on his face. The others, very curious now, walked over to him to see what was making him so happy.

It was the door. The front door. Right there in front of them. It wasn't even possible, and yet there it was. Somehow they had found themselves on the balcony overlooking the main room, with the broken chandelier and the two staircases and the same door they had come through to begin with.

"Am I just seeing things?" asked Isabella, blinking several times in disbelief. Phineas laughed.

"No, I think it's safe to say this is real," he answered. Without wasting another second, the five of them ran down the stairs and stood in the large empty space.

"I can't believe we actually found it!" said Django, smiling along with his friends.

"I suppose sometimes you just get lucky," added Ferb, showing one of his rare smiles as well.

"So now what?" asked Isabella. "I guess we just wait until midnight?"

"But we don't even know what time it is now," Phineas pointed out. "For all we know, it could be two in the morning right now. But I guess we have to wait here."

Almost before he stopped speaking, it happened again. The sound. But this time, it was much closer, much louder, and it sounded as if it was coming from right behind the double doors under the balcony. Feeling the blood drain from his face, Phineas turned to his brother for a second, but kept his eyes on the door.

"Ferb," he began, his voice sounding weak. "What did Tommy say again?"

"The note said, if you can find the door by midnight, it will come, and it will try to kill you," his step-brother answered, already looking around for something to use for defense. Panic setting in, everyone tried to remain calm as they searched from anything to use to their advantage. Phineas had his fire poker; Ferb had broken off a piece of the loose metal railing from the stairs, Isabella found a board with rusty nails sticking out of it, and Django and Baljeet grabbed wooden poles from the stairs. Armed with all they could find, the five kids stood in a line next to one another just in front of the front door, and waited.

It didn't long at all. The continuous noises stopped for half a second, and then the door was blasted open into a thousand pieces. The kids all turned around and covered their faces as to not get hit by flying wooden splinters. When they turned back around, _it _was there.

_It _stood tall and terrifying just outside the doorway. It was easier to see now, seeing as the main room had to be the best lit. Finally they were able to see what they were up against, but what they saw made them wish it were dark. Its face was like something straight from hell. Glowing red slits of eyes, two tiny nostrils below blowing out black smoke, four rows of razor sharp teeth. Its entire body was mostly black, save for its three silver claws on each hand. Its six tentacles appeared to be coming from its back, and they whipped through the air, making a loud snapping sound when they were moved fast enough. Its skin was like the surface of the moon; bumpy all along its face, all the way to the ground. It didn't have a distinctive head, but you could tell where its body started. Again, it didn't have any legs, and it much resembled a black glob with arms and tentacles. Needless to say, Baljeet was going to need a new pair of pants if he ever got out.

It didn't move at first, just standing, well, sitting there, seeming to analyze its opponents. It wasn't used to having kids so determined to survive and save one another. That only made it interesting.

"We can't leave this room," whispered Phineas, speaking quickly and trying to stop his voice from shaking. "So we need to hold it off as best we can. We don't have a light source, so according to Tommy, we can't kill it, but we can try to fight it, and at least wound it. If all else fails, we can try to get around it and up the stairs, because it won't fit up there. It's better to risk getting lost again than having one of us die. We don't move until it makes the first move. Don't let your guard down, don't let it trip you, and don't make a run for it unless everyone is with you."

Everyone was too scared to nod, so they only stared at the creature, waiting for it to do something. About half a minute after Phineas stopped talking, it made its move forward, slowly, but that was all it took.

"Now!" shouted Phineas, and as one the five kids ran forward at it.

They didn't get far. The second they got close enough to strike, a long tentacle slid across the ground and took out everyone's feet, save for Ferb, who saw it before hand and jumped. Before it could come around to get him again, he struck out with his metal pole. It actually got stuck in the creature's side briefly, as its skin was very soft. It let out a roar as Ferb danced backwards out of reach, the others just getting to their feet. Phineas was the next to shake his head clear, and ran forward, ducking around to its side and striking from the back. Isabella pulled out a nail from her board and plunged it into the creature's side, while Django and Baljeet whacked its oncoming tentacle away from her.

_It _was most definitely not expecting a fight. Normally, its victims were too terrified to move, but these kids were actually daring to resist their fate, and keeping an eye out for one another. Every time before _it _had come across more than one kid, they would always abandon their friends to save themselves, making it much easier. But this was different, and not favored by the creature. It roared in pain at the attacks, and shot out four tentacles at the kids. Isabella, Phineas, and Django managed to get out of the way, while Baljeet was shot back across the room and Ferb wasn't fast enough, and found himself falling to the ground. Because his friends weren't close enough to help him, the creature slammed a tentacle down, right on Ferb's right arm. He cried out in pain, and the creature was about to come around for another hit, but was stopped.

"You don't touch my brother!" shouted Phineas, who didn't hesitate to plunge his sharp-ended fire poker right into the creature's side. He yanked it back out just as Ferb managed to get to his feet, his right arm now useless, but luckily he was mostly left-handed. He did his best to ignore the burning pain in his arm and held his pole tightly in his left hand. As the creature slashed out its claws at Phineas, Isabella and Baljeet moved to cover Ferb and strike it from the other side. Django picked up a wooden box from the ground and chucked it at the creatures head. It swatted it away, leaving it vulnerable for another attack from Phineas.

_It _was getting confused now. It was unused to so many opponents, and was unable to concentrate on who was attacking and who was undefended. In pure anger, it let out an ear shattering roar and randomly lashed out with all six tentacles. Three of them hit home, sending Phineas, Isabella, and Django flying to the other side of the room. They skidded across the floor and jumped to their feet as fast as they could to see Ferb striking with his left hand, his face a mask of pure determination. A clawed hand slashed out at him and he ducked down as Baljeet took a swing at it from the other side. Django and Isabella joined Ferb and Phineas snuck around behind. He dashed halfway up the right staircase and then leaped over the rails, landing squarely on its back.

That turned out to be very stupid. The second he landed, three tentacles shot around at him, and he slid down straight onto the floor. He groaned and stood back up immediately, running back around to the front to join Isabella in attacking while the others attacked from opposite sides. Everyone was getting tired however, and that was all _it _needed to get the upper hand.

A tentacle shot out and Django went crashing to the floor. Without hesitating, a clawed hand came down almost too fast to see, and plunged itself deep into the boy's stomach. He let out a gurgled cry, and fell back to the floor. His friends, now momentarily distracted, didn't notice the other tentacle that soon took their feet away. Unable to react fast enough, Isabella felt a slimy tentacle wrap around her left wrist, and she was helpless to do anything as it lifted her high in the air. She heard Phineas call out to her, and felt the pressure increasing on her wrist. There was a very distinct cracking sound that could be heard, and she screamed in pain as her wrist was broken from the sheer force. Feeling about to black out from the pain, she saw below as Phineas charged straight at it and lash out with all he had.

The creature let out another roar and flung Isabella away. She slid across the floor and only stopped when her head banged into the wall. She was sure she should be unconscious by now, but she saw her friends fighting desperately for their lives. Django was still lying on the floor, and Baljeet kneeled over him, trying to stop the flow of blood. Phineas and Ferb attacked the creature head on, fighting as one side by side. Isabella was about to try to stand up and help when she heard a loud creak, and her head moved to the left. She felt her heart miss a beat.

It wasn't possible. It wasn't even physically possible, but right before her eyes, she saw the front door, hanging wide open. Time must have really been messed up in the house, because defying all logic, it was time. Ignoring the pain, Isabella called out to her friends.

"It's midnight!" she shouted.

Everything literally froze. The creature stopped moving, Phineas and Ferb stopped attacking, Baljeet paused in his work, and even Django's head lifted. All head snapped around to face the impossible miracle. Isabella watched her friends for a moment before seeing Phineas' expression harden.

"You guys go, we'll finish this," he ordered, and then turned around and attacked once again, Ferb along with him. The creature responded, slashing out again. Isabella stood up and held her wrist, but she managed to stagger over to Baljeet and Django.

"Baljeet, get out of here," she told him. He hesitated for a moment, looking terrified but also determined.

"But I cannot just abandon you, I must-" he began, but was cut off by Isabella stern yelling.

"Baljeet, don't be an idiot!" she shouted. "Don't you dare try to be brave. You get out of here and you save yourself!"

He paused for half a second, and then burst into tears and bolted for the door. The second he passed through, Isabella turned back to Django, who was fighting to his feet.

"I don't need any argument from you," she said. "You just get out now."

A small smile flashed across his face for a second, and he didn't even say anything, he just staggered slowly to the door, and left. Isabella let out a sigh of relief and ran to Phineas, where he was just standing up from being shot across the room. He turned to look at her, determination set in his eyes. Ferb was fending off the creature alone, and it was paying full attention to him.

"You go too," Phineas told her. "Get out and get help. We need to finish this."

"But I can help," Isabella insisted. "You know I can."

"I know you can, but you need to leave. I-!"

"No! This isn't an option! I'm not leaving you to-!"

"Isabella, listen to me," Phineas interrupted, looking her straight in the eye. "I will not lose you too. I know you can help us, but I won't be able to focus with you here. I'll be distracted about keeping you safe and it will put us both in more danger. The only way we can kill this thing is if we are a hundred percent focused, and for that to happen, you need to be far away. I won't let anything more happen to you."

Isabella was freely crying now. She couldn't do it! She couldn't just abandon him. But she trusted him. More than anyone else in the world, she trusted Phineas Flynn with anything and everything. The tears stinging her eyes, she said nothing for a second, and then she grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled Phineas in for a kiss.

It wasn't an incredibly long kiss, or an incredibly passionate one. But it was the single most meaningful moment in either of their lives. Isabella pulled away after a few seconds, her free hand wiping away her tears.

"I love you," she said to him. Phineas smiled sadly.

"I love you too," he replied. "Now run!"

With that, Phineas turned away and went to join his brother. Isabella stood there for a moment and watched him. And then she did the single hardest thing she had done in her entire life.

She turned around, and ran out the door, leaving the love of her life to his certain death.

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><p>When Phineas saw Isabella run out the door, it was as if a thousand weights had been lifted from his shoulders. Able to focus completely on his task now, he stood alongside his brother and slashed out at the tentacle that was whipping around to him. It only succeeded in diverting its path from him, and instead hit the staircase, causing wood to fly everywhere. Phineas felt a piece slash across his forehead, and felt the hot blood dripping down into his eyes. He wiped it away as best he could and attacked again.<p>

This game continued for several seconds until Phineas was taken off his feet. Ferb rushed to his brother's side to defend him, and the green-haired boy found both clawed hands swinging at him from both sides. He ducked, and felt only a claw slash his left cheek, but he'd had worse, and was able to ignore it. Phineas stood up, his left arm aching terribly, but he too ignored his injuries and slashed out at the creature's body.

No one noticed the door close, and no one cared. It wasn't about escaping anymore; it was about finishing their job. Phineas and Ferb knew they needed to end it so that no one else would be put in their position ever again. Ferb did a full flip through the air, jumping from the stairs, and slashed out at the creatures left eye. It sliced right through, blood flying everywhere, and another roar was heard as all six tentacles flailed wildly again. He landed next to his brother and stumbled slightly, but straightened up in time to have to dodge a claw slashing out.

The death game was almost the same for a few minutes. Attack, dodge, and occasionally get a minor injury, including the same thing happen to Phineas' left arm as happened to Ferb's right. Ferb stood over his brother as the red-head clutched his left arm in pain, trying to stand up as Ferb slashed out at anything that came near him. When he forced himself to his feet, Phineas was instantly tripped again, along with Ferb, who both went crashing to the ground. A single tentacle came slamming down to the ground, mostly likely breaking Phineas' right leg and hitting Ferb just above both knees. Then it picked them both up and dropped them both to the ground a few feet away from each other.

Phineas didn't even scream that time. He couldn't force a sound out of his mouth. He rolled over slightly onto his right, and felt his head hit something. Something cold and metallic. Glancing up as best he could, he saw a bloody miracle right next to him. The flashlight.

He forced his right hand to crawl across the floor to it. He heard Ferb cry out in pain, but didn't look. His fingertips closed around the flashlights handle, and he picked it up, aiming it at the creature. He paused briefly, seeing Ferb lying there unmoving on the ground, and seeing a tentacle about to slam down on him. Letting out a shout, Phineas flicked the light on.

The effect was instant. _It _let out a roar that left Phineas unable to hear anything else for minutes. The light blinded his eyes, as he hadn't seen real light for hours. The creature's tentacles shot up as if to protect its face, but they started sizzling. The smell of burning flesh filled the room, and then in an instant, it literally exploded.

A colorless slime covered the entire room. Phineas covered his face with his right hand, dropping the flashlight, and he stayed still for several seconds. When he lifted his hand away, it was gone. The slime covered the whole room, including a certain green-haired boy who was lying on the ground nearby and could be heard gasping for breath.

Phineas didn't care about the pain. He dragged himself across the floor to where his brother now lie, unmoving save for the slight rise and fall of his chest and the flickering of his closed eyelids. Phineas lay next to him, reaching out with his good hand to his brother's arm. Ferb winced, and his eyes opened slightly.

"Phineas," he said weakly, his voice barely audible.

"We did it Ferb," Phineas said back, feeling the tears begin to fall down his cheeks. "We actually did it. It's gone now, it's dead, and we did it."

Ferb's eyes fluttered shut again, and Phineas felt panic set in again.

"Don't do this Ferb!" he almost shouted. "Not after everything we went through! This isn't how it's going to end for either of us. I didn't do everything to let you die. I can't let you die. Not before you even get to high school or before we get to build the world's largest laser-tag center, or before you tell Gretchen about that crush you've had on her for years. I won't let you…"

Phineas' rambling continued, interrupted only by his sobs he could no longer contain. He kept listing things they hadn't done yet, that they were meaning to do, and that they may never get to do.

"Not before you win a Nobel prize and not before mom throws you that surprise party she's been planning for months and not before I tell you how you're the best brother any kid could ever have and that I can't do it all without you."

Phineas trailed off when he found he could no longer speak anymore. He glanced up at his brother, and to his horror, he could no longer see the faint rise and fall of Ferb's chest. He let out another sob, and squeezed his eyes shut, telling himself it couldn't be true, it couldn't be happening, it _wasn't _happening. Those were the last thoughts that crossed through his mind before the pain became too much and Phineas felt himself fade into unconsciousness.

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><p><strong>Five thousand words later, here we are. That was like twice the size of my normal chapters. I feel proud. And DON'T WORRY, that was not the last chapter. The last one will be submitted tomorrow, on Halloween, as promised, and you'll find out who lived, and who died, and who…<strong>

**Yeah, I must hate you guys.**


	12. What Happens Next

**Alright, I don't want this story to be done as much as you guys, but this is the last chapter. I'll be starting another P&F story after this, a sequel to my other story.**

**Oh yeah… HAPPY HALLOWEEN :D**

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><p>White. That was all he saw. He didn't know if his eyes were closed or not, but either way he couldn't see anything else. He could faintly here a steady beeping sound in the background, but it didn't seem important to him. He was aware that he couldn't move, and he felt a slight pressure on his right hand, like it was holding something. He knew he was lying down, but he didn't know much else.<p>

Finally, he decided that his eyes were closed, and so he tried to open them, which turned out to be easier said than done. His eyelids felt as if there were a millions weights pressing down on him, but he fought against them and forced his eyelids to open a crack. He still saw only white, but everything was blurry, like when you open your eyes under water. He remembered he used to love doing that at the lake, until he'd get something in his eye and laugh along with… someone. He couldn't remember who yet. Everything was all jumbled up in his brain, and he didn't even know where he was. There was only the white.

After a moment, Phineas' eyes began to clear, and he became aware that he was staring up at a white roof. He blinked slowly several times, unable to recall where he was or why he was there or what had happened before. He only diverted his eyes when he felt something squeeze his right hand. Moving slowly as to not cause himself any pain, Phineas turned his head to the right.

He finally realized where he was. He was lying in a hospital bed, in a pure white room, with a small window on the other side, light faintly streaming through the half open blinds. A thin white sheet lay over top of him, and he felt that he was slightly cold, but he ignored it all when he saw who was sitting next to him.

Isabella was sitting on a low stool next to the bed, tears in her eyes and a smile on her face. There were scratches covering her skin, and she had a larger cut over her right eye, but he barely noticed them. In fact, Phineas' mind was still all mixed up, and he couldn't quite remember why he was in a hospital. He opened his mouth to speak, but felt his throat dry. He cleared and tried again.

"Isabella?" he managed to get out, his voice hoarse. At his voice, her smile widened, and he noticed that she was holding onto his right hand, which must have been the pressure he felt. Another tear spilled over and fell down her cheek.

"Hey Phineas," she said softly, sounding like she was trying not to cry. Phineas groaned and closed his eyes.

"What's going on?" he asked. "What am I doing here?"

"It should come back to you in a minute," she replied, her face sympathetic. Phineas looked up at the roof and thought hard, which made his head hurt, but he didn't care at the moment. He stared at the white tiles until it all came crashing down on him. The house. The rooms. The monster. His eyes widened and his head turned to Isabella once again.

"Oh my god," he breathed. Isabella nodded.

"I know. It's kind of a shock."

"What happened?" he asked, for although he remembered, he also remembered fainting.

"You did it," she replied simply. "You killed the monster. I don't know how you managed, but you did."

"Where is everyone?" he asked. At this, Isabella's expression turned solemn and she forced her eyes to meet his.

"You already know Buford and Irving are dead," she began. "And Django is dead too."

"But I saw him get out," Phineas said, confused. Isabella shook her head sadly.

"His wound was too much," she explained. "He died before he could get any help. Baljeet's in a room just down the hall, and he's pretty much fine, mostly just shaken up. I was lucky enough to get away with a few minor injuries, you were lucky enough to get away with a few… major injuries, and, umm…"

Isabella trailed off as if she was afraid to say more. It took him a moment, as Phineas' brain was still a little foggy, but he instantly got worried when he realized who she hadn't mentioned.

"What about Ferb?" he asked cautiously. Isabella looked down at her lap, and Phineas felt the panic rising.

"What happened to my brother?" he asked again. She sighed and looked up at him, her eyes reflecting sadness.

"The doctors are doing everything they can," she explained. "But they don't know what's going to happen."

"So he's alive?" Phineas confirmed. When he saw Isabella's nod, he felt instantly relieved, but she had more to say.

"But that could change at any second. He hasn't woken up since they found you. They think he's in some sort of coma. They have no idea when he'll wake up, if ever."

Phineas didn't know what to think. While knowing his brother was still alive gave him hope, he couldn't imagine having him never wake up.

"So three of us are dead," he said, trying not to think about his brother.

"Yes, but we did it," said Isabella. "Not to sound uncaring, but by going in there, we accidentally saved hundreds of kids who would've gone in after us. I mean, they can go in now, but there won't be any more monsters."

"Our friend's lives weren't worth it," Phineas said softly, gazing up at his friend, who smiled sadly.

"No, no they weren't," she agreed. "But they'd be glad to know that we did it."

Phineas sighed and nodded his agreement. As painful as it was to think about, three of his best friends were gone. Another thought suddenly crossed his mind.

"Where are my parents, and Candace?" he asked. Isabella smiled.

"Thought that might come up," she said. "They're in the waiting room right now. Believe it or not, Candace was the one who convinced them to give us some space."

"They must be freaking out right now."

"Oh they are. But they'll be okay. We all will."

"What do you think they're going to say about all this?"

At this question, Isabella paused, her eyes showing conflict. She hesitated a moment before answering.

"That's just it Phineas, no one can know about any of this."

"What do you mean?" asked Phineas, confused now.

"Well, think about it. If we tell everyone that we were trapped in a house with a monster and moving rooms, our next stop will be a mental hospital. That's why we told them we forgot. I talked about this with Baljeet earlier. When the nurses asked us, we both told them that we can't remember anything past walking in the front door, and that's what you need to do to."

Phineas didn't respond right away. He didn't know what to say. He was never one for lying, but Isabella made perfect sense. There was no way that any adults would believe them, and they would be passed off for crazy. While the kids were another story, he had to agree with her.

"So no one will ever know what really happened to our friends," he said slowly, as if testing the words in his mouth. "We'll never be able to tell anyone how brave they all were and what they did."

"That's right," confirmed Isabella. "But we'll know, and that's all that matters."

Phineas nodded slowly, processing everything that was being said, and then concluded to just go with it. Maybe amnesia was unlikely, but it was much more believable than the truth, and so he would stick with his friends and pretend to forget. Deciding to stop thinking about harder things like that, he instead looked over Isabella. She was dressed in a light blue hospital gown, and her hair was pulled back in a ponytail, with a piece hanging down in the front. For the first time, Phineas noticed the cast on her left arm.

"What happened there?" he asked, nodding his head to her hand. Isabella glanced at it briefly and shrugged.

"That monster had a tight grip," she answered simply. "But I'm fine. Better off than you anyways."

It wasn't until then that Phineas bothered to think about his own condition. Looking down at himself, he saw that while his right arm was mostly fine, save for the bandages around his knuckles, there was an IV in his left arm and he was unable to move it, and anything below the waist.

"I can't move," he said, making Isabella laugh at his comment.

"It's the sedation," she explained. "Apparently you'd be in too much pain without it, so you can't move anything except your head and right arm for a while."

Phineas nodded slowly and thought for a moment, and then decided he wanted more of the story.

"So what's happened since I fainted?" he asked.

"Well, when the three of us got out, Django didn't even make it off the property. Baljeet and I ran to the police station and they followed us to the house. When we went inside, you guys were lying in the middle off the floor, unconscious, and the whole room was covered with this weird slime. The flashlight was also lying on the ground, and it was on. That's when I fainted. I woke up that morning in the hospital. Apparently, time does move differently in that house, because we were gone for all of November 1st. It was midnight that night that we escaped. You've been asleep for three days, under complete sedation while they worked on you. Everyone's freaking out because they have no idea what happened to Buford and Irving, and we can't tell them. They know Django's dead, because they found him, and we can't tell them anything, so no one will ever know. They're also freaking out because the four of us are completely beat up and one of us is in a coma. I've been told specialists are going to come see us to try and "jog our memories" but we won't tell them anything. Other than that, you, Baljeet and I are staying in the hospital for a few weeks until they sort things out, and Ferb will stay here until he's awake and able to move."

Phineas took in everything that was being told to him. It would be difficult to pretend not to know anything, but he knew he could do it if his friends could too. He nodded slowly, thinking over what she had said, and then another thought popped into his mind, one that made him smile.

"What?" Isabella asked, seeing his smile. He turned his head to her, his eyes shining.

"You kissed me," he said simply, causing a deep blush to color Isabella's face.

"And told me you loved me," he continued. "Twice."

Isabella's blush only continued to deepen. She looked up at him when she felt Phineas squeeze her hand lightly, the smile still on his face.

"Well it's true," she replied, smiling as well. "I wasn't sure if I'd get another time to tell you."

"I'm glad you told me," Phineas said. "If you hadn't, I never would've realized that I feel the same way."

Her eyes lit up upon hearing this. Sure, he had said it before, but the timing hadn't exactly been ideal for what was going on. Still, it didn't matter, because even though the confessions came from both a death match and now a hospital bed, they still meant so much to the both of them.

"So," began Phineas, "when I get out of here, would you like to go on a date with me?"

Isabella smiled and laughed quietly.

"I thought you'd never ask," she replied. A short silence followed, and then Phineas felt the need to voice something that had been on his mind for a while.

"You know what I don't understand?" he said. "How did that monster even show up in the first place? And how did it make the rooms move, and how did it shift time, and what really did happen a hundred years ago?"

"I don't think we'll ever know," Isabella replied, shaking her head slightly. "It's dead now, and the house should be back to normal. Some things just have to stay a mystery." Isabella paused, and then smiled at her friend. "But it doesn't matter, because it's done now, and we're alright, and everything's going to be alright, isn't it?"

Phineas smiled as well, knowing she was right, that while the whole experience had been a terrifying adventure, it was over.

"Yes," he replied, "yes it is."

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><p><strong>AND SCENE.<strong>

**Sorry, I just wanted to add that xD I had so much fun writing this story! Thank you readers so much for actually reading the story, and for your inspiring reviews. You guys rock! Oh, and sorry about the nightmares... Well, that's what you have to expect from a story labelled "horror." Anyways... I don't have much more to say. So, thank you, and Happy Halloween!**

**(Oh, did I already say that? Well, twice never hurts, right?)**


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